Reuters<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But the government says it remains on high alert for more unrest this weekend. The fury simmering in a subset of White Britain remains a live danger; these riots were shocking, but not entirely surprising. <\/p>\n
And the causes that aided and enabled the racist violence \u2013 misinformation, anti-migrant rhetoric in Britain\u2019s media and politics, a hobbled police force and stuffed prisons and courts \u2013 will take far longer than a night to fix. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe chickens come home to roost,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a country, this is a bed that we\u2019ve made, and now we\u2019re sleeping in it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fittingly, after a week of misinformation-fuelled fury, the origin and authenticity of the list of supposed far-right targets on Wednesday isn\u2019t clear. <\/p>\n
The addresses included were mainly immigration centers and lawyers dealing with migration cases. It was a scattershot collection, seemingly collated with little knowledge of the local areas; some were offices based in non-descript business parks; others on quiet, residential streets. <\/p>\n
But after a weekend of ugly anger on Britain\u2019s streets, in which hotels housing asylum seekers were set on fire by racist mobs, it quickly went viral: first on Telegram channels used by the far right, then across social media, and among the communities that appeared to be targets. A huge police operation across the country was launched; in the end, few far-right disruptors showed up anywhere. <\/p>\n
Misinformation on social media has added an element of unpredictability to the far right\u2019s organization. <\/p>\n
Leading platforms, especially X, have provided new soapboxes to incendiary figures intent on stirring anti-migrant sentiment. In many cases, their posts are eagerly shared and viewed by the far-right foot soldiers who joined the weekend\u2019s riots \u2013 even if the authors quietly condemn violence after the fact. <\/p>\n
Tommy Robinson, the figurehead of Britain\u2019s far right, was reinstated to X (then Twitter) days after Elon Musk bought the platform. Robinson, whose profile picture shows him with tape across his mouth, has nearly a million followers. <\/p>\n
Almost every one of his tweets is an anti-migrant tirade, frequently using dehumanizing and othering language to describe the high rate of legal and illegal migration to the UK. <\/p>\n
Those themes are echoed by other high-profile Twitter users, like provocateur Laurence Fox, who hosted a show on the right-wing GB News TV channel until he was fired last October for demeaning the appearance of a female journalist on air. Amid the weekend\u2019s riots, Fox told his followers: \u201cIslam needs to be removed from Britain. Completely and entirely.\u201d <\/p>\n
Starmer has become an enemy in the eyes of the far right over the past week, but he has little ability to quell a right-wing and far-right online ecosystem that exists in private messaging apps and, increasingly, on public sites accessible by anyone. <\/p>\n
And remarkably, the first spat that Britain\u2019s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer found himself engaged in was with Musk himself, who has taken an interest in goading Starmer on his platform. <\/p>\n
Musk tweeted Sunday that \u201ccivil war is inevitable\u201d in Britain \u2013 a prediction most Brits would scoff at, and one that prompted an unusually direct rebuke from the prime minister\u2019s spokesperson, who told reporters there was \u201cno justification\u201d for the comments. <\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s far-right rioting broke out less than a month into the tenure of its new prime minister, but Starmer has been here before. <\/p>\n
Formerly Britain\u2019s highest-ranking prosecutor, Starmer oversaw a rapid legal response to the 2011 rioting that broke out after the shooting of a Black man by police in north London. Courts stayed open 24 hours and sentences were well publicized, in an effort not just to deal justice but to send a message. <\/p>\n
He has reached for the same playbook this week. There have been hundreds of arrests, and already dozens of rioters have been charged and sent to begin hefty prison terms, ranging from several months to nearly three years. Their ages, so far, span from 16 to 69. Some judges\u2019 sentencing remarks have been broadcast live, a novel tactic in a country where courtroom cameras are a recent and heavily restricted phenomenon. <\/p>\n