How fake news thrived in the aftermath of the Southport stabbings

It has fallen to Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of state threat legislation, to say the obvious in pointing out that the recent riots following the attacks in Southport show ‘why the public must be told more’ when such attacks happen.

Hall, speaking at a conference organised by the Counter Extremism Group, highlighted the dangers posed by the ‘information vacuum’ in the immediate aftermath of the stabbings. He said:

‘I think we are at a point in time where trust in public institutions should not be taken for granted and when matters of high importance in the public mind happen that, as far as is possible, the police, the government and the media should level with them.’

Hall went on to warn that trust will quickly dissipate if people sense that things are being hidden, and that is ‘exactly what the conspiracy theorists and grievance merchants depend upon’. That is certainly what appears to have happened in Southport on the day of the attack in July, when three children lost their lives.