A fake news website with links to Russia helped spread lies about the Southport stabbings which led to a series of violent riots throughout the UK.
On Monday a 17-year-old boy was arrested over the killing of three young girls attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, in a mass stabbing rampage which saw nine others critically injured.
Follow our latest coverage of the Stockport attacks here:
The suspect has been charged and was named in court as Axel Rudakubana after a judge lifted reporting restictions which would have granted him anonymity until he turned 18.
However, in the immediate aftermath of the killings a social media account named Channel3 Now, which masquerades as an American news network, published a false claim that the alleged murderer was an asylum seeker called Ali Al-Shakati who was ‘on the MI6 watch list’ and ‘known to mental health services’.
The claims were immediately amplified by Russian state media and far-right influencers Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate, who claimed the suspect was an ‘illegal migrant’ who had recently entered the country on a small boat.
Channel3 News’ initial post was viewed nearly two million times before it was eventually deleted, with the sites ‘Editor’ posting an AI-generated apology on their website in which they claim the team responsible for the post had been ‘sacked’.
So widespread was the false claim that Merseyside Police even took the highly unusual step of releasing a statement claiming the name pushed by Channel3 news was ‘incorrect’ and that the suspect was born in Cardiff.
But that didn’t stop hundreds of far-right hooligans hijacking a vigil for the victims in Southport, attacking police and chanting ‘English til I die’ before trashing the town centre and setting a police van on fire.
More than 1,000 people descended on Westminster last night as the rioting intensified, amidst fears things could escalate further.
This week’s violence was not started by Channel 3 news, but their misinformation did play a role in amplifying the far-right response.
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Following an investigation by the Mail, it was revealed that Channel3 Now, which claims to be based in the US, actually started life 11 years ago as a Russian YouTube channel.
Its first video, posted in 2013, depicted a number of Russian men rally-driving in the snow in Izhevsk, a city about 750 miles east of Moscow.
The drivers named in the videos were later revealed to have connections to the country’s defence and IT industries, including a man who appears to be a former KGB operative who has since served in Russia’s parliament.
Channel3 Now then lay inactive for six years before it reemerged in 2019, posting a series of scattershot news pieces including a story about a tiger being beaten to death and a match report from the Manchester City Women’s team.
The organisation has since rebranded itself on a number of occasions, routinely changing its name to aliases such as ‘Fox3 News’ and Fox3 Now’ in an attempt to mimic legitimate news organisations.
Last June it set up a website, which has been accused of sharing ‘racially motivated click-bait’.
Although Channel3 claims to be based in the US, it is registered with an online hosting company in Lithuania, and uses privacy features to hide its owner’s identity.
The first mention of the Southport suspect’s false name appears to have been shared on Twitter by a well-known UK anti-lockdown activist, around five hours after the stabbings took place.
They were repeated by Channel3 just two minutes later, and then picked up by Russian state broadcaster Russia Today.
Although Channel3 deleted the tweet containing the false name, RT kept it on their website, adding an Editor’s Note which said ‘The outlet has later retracted the claim.’
Before the election, Conservative security advisor Stephen McPartland suggested Russia could be behind a social media misinformation campaign designed to inflame tensions in the UK.
A report by McPartland, which Rishi Sunak pledged to implement but was left on the shelf following the change in government, called for a substantial review of cybersecurity and social media misinformation.
He said: ‘Disinformation to undermine democracy is a huge part of the Russian playbook and just in May the British government expelled a Russian defence attache and accused the Russian Federal Security Service [FSB] of systemic malign cyberattacks aimed at undermining democracy.
‘The tragic events in Southport are being mobilised by hostile states to stir up hatred and division instead of letting the community grieve. We need much more cyber-resilience throughout our whole society and economy to defend democracy.’
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