The social media post was quickly taken down, but screenshots were viewed millions of times.
How did one single social media post, taken down within hours for being false, still end up being viewed millions of times online and presented as credible evidence about the Southport attack?at a children’s dance class on 29 July sparked riots in England and Northern Ireland. Unrest was fuelled by misinformation on social media that the suspect was an illegal migrant.
In fact, the BBC has been told that although they were in the neighbourhood, they had been turned away from the dance class because it was full. However, by then it had been copied and posted elsewhere and, within a few hours, had been viewed more than two million times on social media, according to BBC Verify analysis.
Murray’s screenshot was also reposted by a white nationalist who wanted “the border closed” and made a call to “deport these savages”. Ms Spofforth would later be arrested and released without charge. She has always denied any wrongdoing, insisting she only copied and pasted the information before deleting it and apologising. She, Laurence Fox, the actor and head of the right-wing Reclaim Party, reposted Ms Spofforth’s post alongside the Eddie Murray screenshot and wrote: “Close the borders.
We approached Mr Murray for a comment, first through LinkedIn, where he told us he didn’t regret his original post. That protest later turned into a riot. A BBC crew at the scene heard shouts of “You’re fake left-wing news”.
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