Social media companies must take responsibility for putting “rocket boosters” under riots, the home secretary has said.
Far right violence has spread on Britain’s streets after the suspect accused of killing three young girls was falsely identified online as an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK via “small boat”.
More than 420 people have been arrested since riots erupted last week with disinformation on social media fuelling the unrest.
Over the weekend, demonstrations took place in Rotherham, Tamworth, Bolton and Middlesbrough with clashes breaking out between far right and counter-protestors.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has now suggested social media companies must take “some responsibility” what is playing out on Britain’s streets.
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She told BBC Radio 5 Live: “What is criminal offline is also criminal online, so some of the things we have seen online are also illegal and we will expect the police to be pursuing the online criminality as well as the offline criminality.
“But look, social media companies also need to take some responsibility for this. Social media has put rocket boosters under some of the not just misinformation but the encouragement of violence.
“That is a total disgrace and we cannot carry on like this. So we will also be pursuing this with social media companies.”
It comes after prime minister Keir Starmer warned over the weekend that rioters would regret their actions, vowing to do “whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice as quickly as possible.”
“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, either directly or those whipping up this disorder online”, Starmer declared in a televised address.
Referring to a violent attack on a hotel in Rotherham thought to have housed migrants, he said: “There is no justification for taking this action.”
Masked men had launched pieces of wood and let off fire extinguishers at police officers outside the Holiday Inn Express, and some stormed into the hotel.
“People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we have seen Muslim communities targeted and attacks on mosques”, the prime minister added.
Starmer said Muslims had been targeted along with other minority communities, adding there were “Nazi salutes in the streets.”
Downing Street is understood to be holding a Cobra emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss the government’s response over the coming days.
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly has criticised the government for not acting faster in response to the riots.
He insisted the prime minister is “right” to have taken firm action, but added it “should and could have been quicker.”
Asked about what caused the riots, Cleverly told Sky News he was aware of “pernicious” online culture when he was home secretary.
He said this was “perpetrated by the far right, amplified, both within the UK, and beyond our borders”.
What has happened in the past seven days “has got all the hallmarks of something which has been stoked by that”, he added.
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