A Sky News map lights up with flags for the countries where riot-fuelling social media posts originated as they investigate social media misinformation about the Southport stabbings.
The vast majority of social media misinformation about the Southport stabbings which helped spark this summer's UK riots was stoked abroad, new research says.
Accused Axel Rudakubana, born in Cardiff to parents from Rwanda, has been charged with three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed weapon. A post on X, formerly Twitter, gave the name of a fictitious asylum seeker who was wrongly said to be the suspected Southport attacker
Now Sky News has reported that Silvano Trotta, based in the French city of Strasbourg, was behind posts spreading misinformation about the Southport stabbings which happened at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Prose monitors more than 10,000 extremist and conspiracist groups on online accounts and scrutinised 11,051 messages from 1,496 separate chats and channels for a fortnight following the Southport stabbings.
Prose's managing director Al Baker said: 'While all the action is happening on the ground and people in Britain are dealing with the consequences of this misinformation, the people stoking the violence, the people flooding Telegram and other platforms of misinformation, are largely based outside the UK.
A spokesperson for Telegram said: 'Telegram is not a place to spread violent content. Moderators removed UK groups and channels calling for violence when they were discovered in August. Riot police are pictured facing off against protesters in Southport after disorder broke out on July 30, the day after the three fatal stabbings in the town She praised the 'robust and swift' action taken by the criminal justice system, with more than 1,280 arrests, 800 charges and 570 people brought before the courts.
Anti-immigrant sentiment had swirled on online sites, with one group chat on Telegram listing potential targets on August 7.
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