On Saturday 23 August, a 12-year-old girl in the Lochee area of Dundee was charged with weapons possession, after being filmed threatening a Bulgarian man and his partner.
This incident led to a storm of misinformation, perpetrated by right-wing figureheads Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson.
Musk took to Twitter and addressed the situation, believing the arrest to be unjust, stating: “What kind of government arrests little girls who try to defend themselves?” (https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1960619280007094350) and in a longer thread that those responsible for the arrest were “traitors to their own people”.(https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1960139105314001305).Â
This type of misinformation is incredibly harmful without knowing any context. Two things were taken from this video. The man filming was foreign. The girl was not. And that is all Musk needed to stir up more hatred in this situation.
This situation is a symptom of a bigger threat that Musk represents, with his involvement in UK politics continually increasing. Has Elon Musk himself ever visited Dundee? No. What gives him the right to become involved in affairs which don’t concern him? This can be further shown during Tommy Robinson’s recent rally in London, where Musk directly incited violence from behind a screen.
The weaponisation of misinformation is becoming commonplace alongside journalism, often not by the fault of the journalists themselves. People will inevitably speculate narratives that fit their own perspectives, without a thought to whom these narratives affect (although now there is often an intent to affect people). This is one of the key issues of reporting, that even when facts about a situation are reported clearly, they are looked at through a haze of hatred.
The spread of lies and hatred is particularly sinister concerning this incident, as it involves placing a minor on a pedestal to represent a movement. After the incident occurred, a surge of support from anti-immigration supporters manifested in the form of AI images of the girl in full Braveheart attire, duel-wielding a knife and hatchet. A fundraiser was set up for the girl, allegedly by her mother, and raised more than £80,000. The fundraiser was based on American site GiveSendGo, and contained false information about the girl receiving bruises. It becomes even more sinister when anonymous parties attempt to profit off the suffering of others.
While I previously stated that journalists often have their own words twisted, it is still common for these same writers to produce hatred themselves. Sensationalism and misinformation has been around for an incredibly long time, tabloids like the Daily Mail and The Sun create an audience from anger and hysteria. These sentiments have become even more magnified through recent events. Journalists can so often distort reality into their own versions in order to sell more newspaper copies and rile up the masses.
This all begs the question of how to regulate the spread of l lies and smear campaigns in today’s society. A blanket censorship would lead to reduced freedom of speech, so there needs to be some way that’s not an extreme at one end to fix this. Social media regulation is another question entirely. This recent situation in Dundee has shown the significance of fact-checking in journalism, and the need for action to be taken against the spreaders of misinformation.
