A man in Pakistan has been arrested over his alleged role in spreading misinformation that led to riots across the UK.
The suspect, a freelance web developer, was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore on suspicion of cyberterrorism, according to Imran Kishwar, the city’s deputy inspector general of investigations.
The arrest is in connection to the Channel3 Now account on the X social media platform, which was one of the first outlets to publish the false information that the suspect in the Southport knife attack was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in the UK.
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How misinformation on social media fuelled riots
Channel3 Now purports to be a news channel. A Facebook account for the channel said it is managed by people in Pakistan and the US.
After the misinformation led to a violent mob in Southport the next day, police clarified that the suspect in the stabbing attack was from the UK.
Channel3 Now’s editor-in-chief posted an apology on 31 July for “the misleading information published in a recent article on our website, Channel3 Now”. They added: “We deeply regret any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.”
But the misinformation fuelled more than a week of rioting in cities and towns across the UK, which resulted in more than 1,000 arrests.
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The aftermath of the Southport riot
Authorities in the UK blamed far-right agitators for stoking the unrest by continuing to spread misinformation and promoting the violent demonstrations online.
Officials in Lahore said the suspect reposted the misinformation but was not the source of it.
Mr Kishwar told Sky News the suspect was “in search of a wider audience, a good audience and the best [is] in Europe, USA and specifically in the UK”.
He added: “A majority of the earning was coming through UK, so when this incident took place in Southport, he grabbed this as an opportunity, to grab a wider audience that he was searching for because he earns money through monetisation on things like social media platforms. That was [the] only incentive.”
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Police in Lahore have handed over the case to Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which handles cyber terrorism cases.
The agency said the misinformation “created a sense of fear, insecurity” in England, adding that it also harmed Pakistan’s reputation.