Did misinformation fan the flames in Leicester?
The recent violent disorder in Leicester has sparked shock and anger and led to thousands of arrests, but how many of those were due to misinformation posted online?We’ve spent the last week trying to debunk some of the misconceptions in and about Leicester and trying to find out how widespread they were before the disturbance and its aftermath.Acting Chief Constable Rob Nixon told BBC Two’s Newsnight that people were deliberately trying to use social media in a destructive way.
Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby also blamed misinformation online and said there was “no obvious local cause” otherwise. At least one person convicted of disorderly conduct admitted to being influenced by social media.When we spoke to people in Leicester, community leaders or others who had experienced the disruption, they mentioned some misinformation that created tension as the disruption was at its worst over the weekend. September 18One false story was mentioned again and again.”Today my 15-year-old daughter… almost got kidnapped,” the worried father said in a Facebook post. “3 Indian boys came out and asked him if he was a Muslim. He said yes and one man tried to grab him.”
After community activist Majid Freeman shared the family’s story on September 13, the post was liked hundreds of times not on Facebook but on Twitter. He also shared a police message that he said “confirms what happened yesterday [September 12].”A day later, Leicestershire Police released a statement following an investigation, saying “there was no incident”. Majid Freeman has since deleted his posts and said there was no attempted abduction and that his original version was based on an interview with the family who made the allegation.
CrowdTangle tool and found no duplicate claims of attempted kidnapping
But the damage was already done, and this false claim about the robbery made a comeback on other platforms.On WhatsApp, some have repeatedly believed the reports to be true. On the site, Instagram profiles, some with hundreds of thousands of followers, shared screenshots of the original post and allegedly blamed The Hindu for a “robbery gone wrong”.However, it is impossible to estimate the extent of the spread in private networks. As for the public records, we used the CrowdTangle tool and found no duplicate claims of attempted kidnapping. Of course, the posts could have been deleted and the accusations could still be circulating in private groups.
Many in Leicester said the roots of the tension go back much further. The incident in Leicester following India’s dramatic victory over Pakistan in the Cricket Asia Cup in Dubai on August 28 received much media attention.Like most misinformation, what happened next was more distortion than outright fabrication.
Something happened. Video from that evening shows a group of men wearing several Indian outfits marching down Melton Road in Leicester chanting “death to Pakistan” before fighting broke out and police arrived.Many took to social media to capture another video purportedly showing an attack on a Muslim who walked into a crowd. However, it has since been widely claimed that the man was a Sikh.
