How fake claims over Southport suspect spread like wildfire with false name seen more than 420,000 times

Exclusive: Riots across England were sparked by fake claims on social media about the suspects background – we look at just how widely that misinformation was shared

The UK was hit by a wave of racist riots in the wake of false information spread on social media (Getty Images)

Posts sharing the false identity of the Southport stabbing suspect were viewed at least 420,000 times on social media, The Independent can reveal.

England was hit by a series of race riots in towns and cities after wrong information was shared online following the killing of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party on 29 July. The suspect was eventually named as Axel Rudakubana, born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, after a judge ruled the 17 year-old’s identity could be revealed.

But before that, thousands of posts appeared on multiple social media platforms spreading a false name and background of the killer: Ali Al-Shakati, an asylum seeker of Muslim faith who was said to have come to the UK by boat last year.

The fake name would go on to have an astounding potential reach of 1.7 billion people; that figure made up of the number of followers and/or page likes where the keyword appeared.

Social media data analysed by Hootsuite, the social media performance engine, shows that the false information was shared in at least 4,776 posts across X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, Quora, and Reddit.

The posts mentioning the false name were engaged with at least 91,150 times (likes, shares, quotes), and videos with the name were watched over 330,000 times, according to Hootsuite.

There were more than 2,632 posts mentioning Ali Al-Shakati on the day of the stabbing alone. The false identity has been shared in posts by some 3,000 accounts across social media platforms since.

Many posts shared the false information with nearly identical wording, and a particular focus on the asylum seeker claim, which was entirely untrue and fomented anti-immigrant sentiment that boiled over into rioting.

This data shows how the misinformation spread like wildfire in a matter of hours, picked up by thousands of individual users and shared among communities.

The false suspect’s identity was closely linked to calls to violence on social media, with incendiary and misleading information suggesting “basically this was a terrorist attack. Despite what the BBC may say. Another Islamic scumbag”.

The first person to share the false name and background of the subject has been identified as a British woman on social media, who claims she received the information from someone in Southport.

An account associated with an obscure news website Channel3Now  published the information in a widely shared article (since taken down), which also falsely said that the suspect was known to MI6.

A number of high-profile accounts jumped on the bandwagon, including Laurence Fox, whose tweet with the false name remains up on his page, including misleading allusions to the suspect’s religion.

Rioters targeting Muslim and Asian communities

The nationwide riots were largely tied to false rumours that the suspect was Muslim, culminating in multiple instances of Islamophobia-linked violence such as attacks on mosques.

Chants of “Allah, Allah, who the f*** is Allah” were heard outside of Merseyside mosque on July 30, and an Asian taxi driver in Hull was racially abused and dragged out of his vehicle.

This has put Islamophobia squarely at the forefront of the national conversation. 

The Hootsuite data shows that posts mentioning the keyword “Muslim” have ballooned since the stabbing, and reached their peak at the worst of the riots on Sunday 4 August.

There were more than 202,000 posts mentioning the word “Muslim” in the period between the date of the stabbing and 8 August, 10 days later. This is a 242 per cent increase when compared to the 59,430 posts in the previous 10 days.

Over August 4 and 5, at the peak of the riots’ violence, there were over 60,000 posts mentioning the word “Muslim”.

Social media engagement for these posts reached 11.6 million since July 29.

Riots broke out in multiple cities across England (Getty Images)

Immigration on the front line

Another factor that contributed to the riots was the false information around the suspect being a migrant, specifically an asylum seeker. In fact, the real suspect was born in Cardiff.

Far-right groups have largely rallied around this anti-immigration sentiment, with violent and targeted attacks at a Rotherham hotel where asylum seekers were trapped inside and “glad to be alive”.

The keywords and terms “immigrant”, “migration”, “migrant” and “asylum seeker” have been mentioned in over 154,000 posts since the stabbing and subsequent riots began, according to Hootsuite’s data.

In particular, posts mentioning the term “asylum seeker” shot up by 303 per cent compared to the previous 10-day period, with 47,184 posts across platforms.

These posts mentioning asylum seekers have seen a substantial boost in engagement of 423 per cent, with over 2 million (2,670,239) likes, shares, comments, and more.

The topic of immigration has become increasingly heated, with Labour MP Michael Shanks warning that “we need a reset in some of that language we use as a Government, we need to stop [...] dehumanising people that come into this country and contribute to the economy”.

Other politicians have echoed the importance of addressing the tensions, with Boris Johnson accusing prime minister Keir Starmer of being “deaf to public concerns” over illegal immigration.