Russia behind surge in anti-immigrant violence in UK

The British outlet The Telegraph investigated the origins of this violence and discovered that Russian-linked information resources were the trigger.

The primary site fueling these riots was Channel 3 Now, a platform notorious for spreading blatant misinformation and manipulative content. After an attack on a dance studio in Southport that resulted in the deaths of three young girls, Channel3 Now—a website that pretends to be a legitimate American news source but functions as an “aggregator” for both real and fake news—spread this misinformation, which initially surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) and falsely identified the attacker as a Muslim refugee named Ali Al-Shakati. 

@Artemisfornow was the first to mention this misinformation. They have since deleted the tweet and provided no explanation for the name's origin. Just two minutes after its original posting, Channel 3 picked up the story.

Screenshot: now deleted tweet by Channel3 Now on the Southport attack

Although Al-Shakati never actually existed, the “news outlet” falsely identified him as a 17-year-old Muslim asylum seeker. The court identified the actual suspect as Axel Rudakubana, a Rwandan born in Cardiff in 2006.

The Telegraph highlighted that Channel 3 Now’s tweet about Al-Shakati on the social network X garnered 27 million views despite having only 3,000 subscribers. Bots may have swiftly promoted the tweet to maximize its visibility. Furthermore, the news from Channel 3 Now was picked up by racist platforms, conspiracy theorists, and Russian websites, which cited Channel 3 Now in their reports. What started as a minor rumor quickly grew into a flood of conspiracy theories on social media, amplified by thousands of Russia-linked accounts.

The most intriguing detail is that Russians launched and managed several social media platforms associated with Channel3 Now. For instance, an individual from Russia's Izhevsk started the outlet's YouTube channel in 2012 with car racing videos.

The drivers featured in these videos have links to Russia's defense and IT sectors, including one who appears to be a former KGB operative now serving in Russia's parliament, according to a report by MailOnline. After a long hiatus, it re-emerged as Funny Hours, shifting to English-language content about Pakistan. Additionally, Pakistani citizens have now registered the Channel3Now domain in Lithuania.

Over the past two years, the channel's content has shifted to resemble that of a professional news outlet. In June of last year, Channel3 Now launched its website, which has faced accusations of sharing “racially motivated click-bait.”

The site has frequently changed its name, including using “Fox3 Now” and “Fox3 News” in an apparent attempt to mimic legitimate news organizations.

Dr. Marc Owen Jones from Northwestern University suggests that this change indicates the channel was likely hijacked and repurposed for disinformation rather than being an original part of a Russian operation.

Identifying the party responsible for the site is challenging. The site lists a single-named author, James Lawley, whose LinkedIn profile claims he runs a gardening business in Nova Scotia, Canada. A Massachusetts-based service routes the site itself, anonymizing ownership details.

A reverse search of Lawley’s image yields no results beyond his LinkedIn page, and his listed company, A Cut Above Halifax, has no other online mentions, suggesting he may not be a real person, as the Telegraph highlights.

After the debunking of the Southport attacker's false identity, the site's YouTube channel mysteriously disappeared, complicating the investigation into Channel3 Now.

Who disseminated disinformation about the Southport attack?

The account @EuropeInvasionn, formerly @makcanekripto, is notable for its promotion of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant content and spreading disinformation. Despite claiming to have been created in 2010, it only became active in its current form around February 2024. It quickly amassed over 300,000 followers and frequently received thousands of likes and retweets, which are likely inauthentic.

Marc Owen Jones highlighted that this account was among the first to propagate the false rumor about the Southport attacker being Muslim. 

Putin's main state broadcaster, Russia Today, initially published the same false information.

Screenshot: RT’s Children dead in ‘horrendous’ UK stabbing attack article before the retraction

They later issued a notice retracting the information from the article. By the time the retraction was made, chaos had already spread across England.

Marcus Beard, a former Downing Street official who led No. 10’s efforts to counter conspiracy theories during the COVID crisis, and other analysts confirm that poor-quality bots are tweeting about the Southport incident, though he warns that this is mainly "engagement farming," a tactic that has been in use since 2010.

Ava Lee from the campaign group Global Witness adds, “Accounts that seem to be bots are exploiting the horrific events in Southport to sow division when the community is calling for calm.”

While it is unlikely that Russians were the original instigators of the misinformation surrounding the Southport incident, they have undoubtedly played a significant role in amplifying its spread. In Europe and beyond, Russia has been building a network of resources, media outlets, journalists, experts, and influence agents for decades.

They now use this extensive network for information campaigns, to instigate chaos across Europe, and to advance their own interests. The rapid dissemination and escalation of the false narrative have clearly benefited those seeking to exploit the situation for geopolitical gain.