The United Kingdom woke up Sunday morning to city streets covered in debris and smoldering rubbish as a weekend of far-right, anti-immigration demonstrations — stoked by conspiracy theories spread on social media — erupted into violence in seven cities across the nation.
Police arrested at least 100 people, and riot police wearing helmets and holding shields came out in force as Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to take action against “extremists.”
On Saturday, groups in Leeds waving St. George’s Cross flags, England’s national flag regularly flown by far-right groups, shouted “Muslims off our streets,” pairing it with a slur suggesting they were criminal child abusers. In the city of Hull, rioters threw bottles and smashed a window at a hotel housing asylum-seekers as demonstrators clashed with police.
What started as targeted anti-immigration demonstrations quickly descended into directionless disorder. A library in Liverpool, reopened in 2023 as an “education to employment” service for people of all abilities, was set ablaze.
Honestly, get rid of the tabloids full of misinformation. Make blatantly false misinformation illegal. Better education. “The more you know 💫” adverts. The biggest problem is the Torries who blame everything they can on immigrants. They need to legally be held accountable for the mountain of lies.
Notably that’d only help if the majority of misinformation is coming from somewhere your legal system can reach
Not to mention that then it’s up to someone in power to decide what “misinformation” is
In Germany, press law says that if you publish false information about someone, they can sue you to publish a correction – placed as prominently as the original article. Which is how you get front pages like this: Counter-statement by the offended party, to the square millimetre as large as the original title.
Now don’t get me wrong the Bild is still abhorrent. But that kind of accountability through embarrassment does make them think thrice.
Another approach would be anti-monopoly laws. Haven’t looked into the actual ownership structure but by what they’re writing and pushing the British press seems to be basically wholly owned by Atlas-affiliated people.
I hate to be that guy in this context but perhaps a governmental “ministry of truth” isn’t all that optimal.
Free education alone would massage the issue, so would actively combating and preventing foreign states attempts to stoke the flames (China and Russia on Social Media).