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How a network of falsehoods helped inflame Britain's anti-immigrant riots

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How a network of falsehoods helped inflame Britain's anti-immigrant riots
August 10, 2024
Article Body Text When a teenager attacked a children’s dance class in Southport, England, with a knife, killing three girls, it shocked the British public. Soon, a purportedly American website published what it said was the name of the attacker. He was “Ali al-Shakati,” a “17-year-old asylum-seeker,” a website called Channel3 Now reported. Claims that the suspect was a Muslim migrant provoked a week of unrest across England. But those claims were false: “Ali al-Shakati” likely didn’t even exist, and Channel3 Now was not an established U.S. news outlet, but a little-known website publishing sensational news under the guise of an American television channel. In response to the disinformation, the British authorities published the name of the real suspect in the knife attack: Axel Rudakubana, 17, who was born in Wales to Rwandan immigrants. He is neither Muslim nor a migrant. But that didn’t stop the unrest. A VOA investigation into the origins of the misleading article has found two pages on Facebook belonging to “journalists” at Channel3 Now, which has since publicly apologized for the misidentification. One of the site’s contributors uses what may be the stolen identity of a Canadian race car driver. The second, a Pakistani man, has at times achieved significant engagement by sharing real but extremely polarizing U.S. news. VOA’s findings suggest the site uses sensationalized headlines to attract readers and generate revenue — a conclusion also reached in an investigation by the <a class="wsw__a" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y38gjp4ygo" target="_blank">BBC</a>. Suspicions of a Russian connection to the false identification arose after a British journalist discovered that the earliest videos on Channel3 Now’s YouTube page depicted automobile races in Izhevsk, a city in central Russia. VOA found that one of those short racing videos was also published on the Russian social media site Odnoklassniki by a man named Andrey Argyshev. The titles of two other videos visible on a screenshot of Channel3 Now’s YouTube account — which has since been deleted along with its videos — reference race car drivers who are Argyshev’s friends on social media. A photo album from 2013 on Argyshev’s page on VKontakte, a Russian social network, matches the detailed titles of two other videos visible on the screenshot. The video titles and screenshot indicate they are from 2013. In comments to the BBC, a Channel3 Now employee denied having connections to Russia and said the racing videos had been posted before the site was purchased from a previous Russian owner “many years ago.” VOA’s dating of the Russian racing videos to 2012 and 2013 lends credibility to that explanation. No more recent connections to Russia have been found on the site. However, Russian efforts to stir up unrest in the United States and Western Europe have been well documented by Western intelligence agencies. In a previous investigation, VOA reported that the Kremlin has commissioned the creation of a large number of social media accounts and fake news sites to push its narratives. <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/investigation-who-is-ilya-gambashidze-the-man-the-us-government-accuses-of-running-a-kremlin-disinformation-campaign-/7604052.html"><figure><img src="https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-7016-08dc6fe2df65_w1600_r0_n_s.jpeg" /></figure></a><a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/investigation-who-is-ilya-gambashidze-the-man-the-us-government-accuses-of-running-a-kremlin-disinformation-campaign-/7604052.html">Investigation: Who is Ilya Gambashidze, the man the US government accuses of running a Kremlin disinformation campaign?</a> In response to the Southport unrest, the Russian Embassy in the U.K. said on the Telegram messaging app that “Russia does not intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign states.” Curiously, however, VOA has discovered a more recent connection between Channel3 Now and auto racing. The website has only one bylined author: James Lawley. He has a Facebook page and the @Channel3Now account on the X social network is called "James Channel3Now." According to Facebook, Lawley lives in Los Angeles. Using reverse image searchers and facial comparison software, VOA determined that the Facebook photograph depicts a real person named James Lawley — but he’s actually a young Canadian race car driver and student from Nova Scotia. VOA attempted to contact Lawley through the head of his racing team. In a message on WhatsApp, the director wrote: “Identity theft most likely.” He promised that the real Lawley would contact VOA, but the racer never reached out. Pakistan Behind all the smoke and mirrors, Channel3 Now’s clearest connections appear to be to Pakistan. Marc Owen Jones, a professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, noted that one of the site’s Facebook pages indicated it had two managers in Pakistan and one in the United States. The page has since been deleted. The site’s one other identifiable journalist, Farhan Asif, claims on Facebook to be from New York. In an X account linked to Channel3 Now, he describes himself as a “crime news reporter” who covers the United States. All the other evidence suggests he’s from Pakistan and likely resides there. <figure><img src="https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-4ea4-08dcb8cb7452_w1600_r0_n_s.png" /><figcaption>A screenshot of the Facebook page of Farhan Asif, a Pakistani man who presents himself as a journalist for Channel3 Now and may be its co-owner. (Facebook)</figcaption></figure> On Linkedin and Rozee.pk, two professional social networking sites, Asif describes himself as an employee of an outsourcing company in Lahore. Asif did not respond to requests for comment. Channel3 Now’s website has also changed its name at times throughout its history. Prior to last year it was known as Fox3 Now, Fox5 Now and Fox7 Now, prompting an arbitration suit from Fox Media LLC. In August 2023, an administrative panel ordered that the web addresses associated with those names be transferred to Fox Media. That likely forced the website to rebrand as Channel3 Now. The earliest archived versions of the site found by VOA under that name date from September 2023. Evolution of a fake The combination of fake and other deceptive “journalists” and the type of stories promoted on the site suggest Channel3 Now is motivated by money, not ideology. Advertising seems to play a significant role in the site’s direction. As Ryan McBeth, a blogger who covers disinformation and cyber security, noted, Channel3 Now is flush with advertisements. “Based on all the ads, I think this is a fake news site that's designed to sell outrage to sell ad views,” he said in a <a class="wsw__a" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6b3mCgV_2E" target="_blank">video blog</a>. That was also the explanation that a purportedly American employee of Channel3 Now gave to the BBC: that it was a commercial enterprise aimed at making money by publishing large amounts of articles. The site’s heavy focus on crime stories supports this conclusion. The employee, who identified himself as “Kevin,” also said the site has 30 employees — mostly freelancers — in the U.S., U.K., India and Pakistan. That may stretch plausibility, given the low quality of Channel3 Now’s output. Regardless, in some cases, the site can simulate real journalism. In February 2023, Lawley published a Fox7 Now story on X about the suicide of a teenager in Oklahoma that received 15 shares and comments from several real people, including the teenager's mother. In November 2023, Asif published two posts on Facebook that included links to a Channel3 Now article about the suspect in the high-profile shooting of three Palestinian students in Vermont. The news was real, but the goal was probably engagement. <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/men-of-palestinian-descent-shot-injured-at-us-holiday-gathering/7370974.html"><figure><img src="https://gdb.voanews.com/9cb7b4dd-c987-497c-8a3d-508fb3fae595_w1600_r0_n_s.jpg" /></figure></a><a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/men-of-palestinian-descent-shot-injured-at-us-holiday-gathering/7370974.html">3 Men of Palestinian Descent Shot, Injured at US Holiday Gathering</a> However, the Southport story appears to have brought Channel3 Now too much attention. Two days after it was posted, the site apologized for publishing the wrong name of the suspect. "We take full responsibility for this error and pledge to avoid such errors in the future," the unnamed author wrote.
Content Type Text
Language English
NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
Subtitles / Dubbing Available No
Network VOA
Embargo Date August 9, 2024 20:11 EDT
Byline Matthew Kupfer
Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English