Misinformation which helped gas Southport riots was ‘turbo-charged’ by overseas bots, says head of counter-terrorism policing

Misinformation which helped fuel the summer’s riots was ‘turbo-charged’ by foreign bots, Britain’s head of counter-terror policing has said.

False information about the alleged perpetrator of the Southport attack received more than 27million impressions on Twitter as violence erupted in 27 towns.

Matt Jukes also criticised ‘unhelpful’ commentators who know that certain information cannot be released while legal proceedings are active but presented this as ‘evidence of cover-up and conspiracy.’

The latest figures show that policing the disorder over the summer cost £31.7million – but this sum is expected to increase once all forces who provided mutual aid cover report their own data.

Over a 12-day period, officers clocked up more than 40,000 hours of public order shifts, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said.

So far 1,590 people have been arrested, of whom 17 per cent were aged under 18.The total number of charges brought is 1,015.

Of the arrests made so far, 99 were for offences committed online.

Mr Jukes said there was a misconception that the ‘thought police’ had arrested hundreds of people for voicing their opinions.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is among those who have claimed there has been a cover-up over the Southport murders of three young girls in July. 

‘The reality is the hundreds and hundreds of people who were arrested were arrested because of their suspected involvement in violence, criminal damage, direct harms in communities,’ he said.

The vast majority of misinformation spread online was driven by people within UK communities, but foreign interference played a huge role in stoking violence, Mr Jukes added.

A Mail investigation revealed obscure platform Channel3Now spread false rumours that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker and on an MI6 watch list.

And Mr Jukes said misinformation of this type was further ‘turbo-charged’ by foreign bots, some of which were of Russian origin.

‘And so as we were tracking the amount of traffic, hateful traffic, during the 24-hour period across the days, we would see tremendous spikes as around midnight, bots kicked in,’ he told reporters at a policing conference.’

And we would just see that the amplification, automation of that reach of those messages which were at times hateful, at times misinformation.’

Some middle class people with good jobs ‘lost everything’ because they got swept up in the riots, the Labour police and crime commissioner for Cleveland said at the same briefing.

Matt Storey, who was elected in May, said: ‘The cops have given me examples of people who had really good jobs, really settled lifestyles, middle class, and have lost everything because they basically got drawn into it [rioting].’

Mr Storey said much of the violence was motivated by hate and racism, with people exploiting the Southport tragedy to give voice to prejudiced views which they already held.’

As an elected representative, I want to speak with the people who perpetrated the violence and ask why they did it,’ Mr Storey said.

‘And if they do hold prejudiced views, I want to know why they hold them and understand how we can best educate people.’