It comes after millionaire mum Bonnie Spofforth said she was 'mortified' to be accused of being the first to spread the false rumours.

The woman accused of being first to spread the fake rumours about the Southport killer which sparked nationwide riots has been arrested.

Racist riots spread across the country after misinformation spread on social media claiming the fatal stabbing was carried out by Ali Al-Shakati, believed to be a fictitious name, a Muslim aslyum seeker who was on an MI6 watchlist.

A 55-year-old woman from Chester has now been arrested on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred, and false communication. She remains in police custody.

While she has not been named in the police statement about the arrest, it is believed to be Bonnie Spofforth, a mother-of-three and the managing director of a clothing company.

  • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldEnglish
    135·
    4 months ago

    I appreciate the discussion. I knew this wouldn’t be a popular take and almost deleted it before commenting.

    Again, I think spreading lies on the internet is an appalling thing to do, but I just wanted to share my disbelief that someone could be arrested for it. Like, imagine if the cops showed up with handcuffs for everyone’s grandparents for every racist email forward (or Facebook post) they shared.

    I know it’s tempting to want bad things to happen to people we don’t like, but I think situations like this are a test of our ethics and values.

    • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.worldEnglish
      131·
      4 months ago

      Again, I think spreading lies on the internet is an appalling thing to do, but I just wanted to share my disbelief that someone could be arrested for it.

      How is it really different from starting a white supremacy group and calling to ‘expel immigrants’ in posters around a city? The only difference from any other racist/terrorist action is that it was placed online. Do we really need to allow that to be okay?

      • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldEnglish
        44·
        4 months ago

        The only difference from any other racist/terrorist action is that it was placed online.

        I’d consider another big difference that one was a tweet with misinformation and the other is a call to action to “expel” people. The tweet is appalling but hardly terrorism.

        • SRo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          21·
          3 months ago

          Why? It was obviously a lie to rile people up. Why shouldn’t it be considered cyber terrorism?

    • FelixCress@lemmy.worldEnglish
      83·
      4 months ago

      Deliberately lying with an agenda of misleading the public in order to achieve certain goal should 100% be a criminal offence.

    • mommykink@lemmy.worldEnglish
      75·
      4 months ago

      I’m on your side. Without a direct call to action that breaks some laws, the idea that you can be arrested for “false communication” is straight up dystopian to me.