Why Russian disinformation may be fuelling violence and protests in Glasgow

Riot police hold back protesters near a burning police vehicle after disorder broke out in Southport in July 2024 (Picture: Christopher Furlong) | Getty Images

After the riots that followed the Southport stabbings, it emerged that some of mis- and disinformation spread about what happened came from outside the UK, both from far-right activists and hostile states like Russia.

Writing for the Royal United Services Institute think tank, Joe Morley-Davies, an intelligence analyst at defence and security news magazine Janes, warned that the Kremlin had “demonstrated... how to obscure and legitimise its narratives by outsourcing and franchising its campaigns to witting and unwitting proxies”.

After the 2024 general election, social media accounts that had been attacking the UK’s support for Ukraine switched to criticising the Labour government and making claims about the police’s alleged double standards. “Reviewing typical provocative terms associated with the protests and riots (#twotierkier, #twotierpolicing, ‘UK has fallen’ and so on) demonstrates tell-tale signs of Kremlin interference,” Morley-Davies wrote. Such “manipulation and influence campaigns”, he added, formed part of what Vladimir Putin’s regime regard as their “existential struggle against the West”.

READ MORE: How the far-right stirred up violence – and how to defeat them

Dupes, thugs and possibly worse

So the warning from Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Alan Waddell that anonymous accounts are “definitely tapping into fears of communities” and spreading “factually incorrect” information that is fuelling protests, disorder and violence in Glasgow may be even more worrying than it first appears.

“... the base cause of it has been misinformation put out by somebody that’s probably not been local to that community in the first place,” he said, adding it was a problem officers were “now facing on a daily basis”.

Glasgow saw racist attacks on members of the public last month and there are concerns about a protest planned for this weekend – over a planning application for a care home expansion – because of false claims it is designed to house asylum seekers.

Clearly, the people taking to the streets because they have swallowed a lie are dupes, while those resorting to violence are mindless thugs. However, if it emerges that these lies have come from Putin’s disinformation campaign against this country, then, unwitting or not, they are also acting as the agents of a hostile foreign power.

Given warnings the UK could be at war with Russia by 2030, those responsible may find limited appetite for tolerance of such treason.