What the UK must do to curb anti-immigrant riots

Parts of the United Kingdom have been engulfed by violence since last week, with several police officers and unarmed Muslim civilians being injured and property damaged in riots caused by far-right extremists in cities across the country. The riots began after a 17-year-old British boy went on a stabbing spree in Southport on July 30, killing three girls and injuring eight other children and two adults. Despite the boy being born in Wales to Christian parents, far-right influencers and websites called him an undocumented Muslim immigrant and issued appeals to protect the country from immigrants. Days later, a vigil for the girls who died was hijacked by far-right extremists who had travelled from other parts of the UK and went on to attack a mosque and police officers. More than 20 protests were planned across the UK, some descending into violence and destruction of property as nearly 100 rioters were arrested. The crowds assembled at these protests appear to be disparate and contain people from a variety of backgrounds. While far-right extremists might be the public face of the protests, everyday British citizens also turned up, suggesting many people could be misled into attending these protests under the false pretences of saving Britain from outsiders. Telegram and other social media apps have been at the forefront of calls for protests and disseminating misinformation, yet it is important to note that the Southport attack and its aftermath were triggered by much deeper issues. The Conservative Party had governed from 2010 until last month’s general election, introducing severe austerity measures and cuts to public spending during its tenure. The country’s public infrastructure steadily crumbled on the Conservatives’ watch, with Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic adding to simultaneous crises in the housing, energy, healthcare and transport sectors, among others, which brought about a series of strikes in recent years. The government’s response to these developments was to deflect blame by pointing the finger at high levels of immigration. One of the most prominent voices behind the government’s anti-immigration stance was Suella Braverman, the former British home secretary who was accused of fuelling far-right violence last year after calling pro-Palestinian demonstrators “hate marchers”. Other prominent anti-immigration figures include Nigel Farage, a leading campaigner for Britain to leave the European Union and founder of the far-right Reform UK Party, and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, founder of the anti-Muslim English Defence League who fled the UK after being arrested under terrorism laws in July. These local actors’ voices have been amplified by a broad disinformation network, leading to millions of views on social media platforms. Their campaigns build on previous networks of misinformation designed to blame immigrants and Muslims for domestic problems in countries across Europe, as an investigation by misinformation researchers revealed last month. Several actors have been accused of operating these misinformation networks. Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove has pointed to Russia spreading fake news about the Southport stabbings, while other investigations have highlighted links between foreign anti-Muslim groups and figures such as Yaxley-Lennon. The post-Southport riots have serious underpinnings at home and abroad that must be factored in when considering future steps. It is likely that more protests will take place across the UK soon. The British government must take several steps to maintain law and order, starting with reviewing the actions of the riots’ main instigators on social media and ground-level actors against existing terrorism laws. The UK government defines terrorism as the use or threat of serious violence against people, damage to property, risk to the health and safety of the public or interference with an electronic system with the intent of influencing the government in order to advance a political, religious, racial or ideological cause. This description covers some of the actors involved in these riots, and applying it could help deter spontaneous violent action by protesters. Second, social media companies must play a more proactive role in preventing these actors from garnering more influence online. Because these companies profit from increased engagement driven by outrage online, their incentive to curb influential actors is reduced. This is why internet watchdogs and other organisations such as the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism must work towards rules for social media companies to discourage such actors and possibly ban them if they are found to be complicit in riots, for example. There is precedent for such actions, with Yaxley-Lennon and other far-right figures being banned from Twitter until Elon Musk took over the company and reinstated them over what he described as his “free speech absolutism”. Finally, in the long term, the current Labour government must find ways to tackle the multiple crises it has inherited from its Conservative predecessor while also addressing the burden and fears of the British public as well as politicians and media channels that have been spreading hatred against immigrants and Muslims. This is likely to involve difficult conversations on government spending, ways to raise revenue, fix the country’s infrastructure and reduce the simmering tensions. Without these longer-term measures, attempts at finding solutions will only be cosmetic. The UK is in for a rough ride as it comes to terms with the previous government’s failures, and it must persevere at every level as the current problems it faces are just the tip of the iceberg. Mohammed Sinan Siyech is a doctoral candidate at the Islamic and Middle East Studies Department at the University of Edinburgh and a non-resident associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi

What the UK must do to curb anti-immigrant riots

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}The new Labour government faces the tall task of restoring public trust and addressing the many festering issues left by its predecessor

The new Labour government faces the tall task of restoring public trust and addressing the many festering issues left by its predecessor