Ofcom has said that there was a ‘clear connection’ between online activity and the violent disorder seen in early August this year in the UK, with illegal content and disinformation spreading rapidly.

The regulator refers to the violent, racist, right-wing attacks seen at the beginning of August which rocked the UK following the misidentification of the murderer of three young girls in Southport. Following the spread of misinformation on social media, violent, destructive riots broke out, spurred on by racial hatred online.

Following the attacks, Ofcom investigated the impact of social media on the riots, the worst the UK has seen in recent years. Social media firms were largely silent during the violence and in the aftermath, though users on their platforms spat out misinformation and inciting illegal and harmful material, Ofcom’s inquiry found.

According to an open letter sent by Ofcom chief Dame Melanie Dawes, some social media platforms were seeing illegal and harmful material being shared in tens of thousands of posts, with some accounts with followers of over 100,000 sharing false claims and identification of the Southport attacker.

“Posts about the Southport incident and subsequent events from high-profile accounts reached millions of users, demonstrating the role that virality and algorithmic recommendations can play in driving a divisive narratives in a crisis period,” Ofcom said.

Ofcom found that some major social platforms were used to post and spread content calling for violent action in Southport and other cities. Private messaging services hosted closed groups with thousands of users spreading calls for targeted violence.

Some firms did tell Ofcom that they took immediate action, including the implementation of incident response protocols, prioritising moderation and removal or illegal and harmful material, and engaging with civil society and law enforcement.

Overall, the response of some social media platforms was “uneven”, the chief said.

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The chief also detailed some of the stipulations social media firms would have had to answer to if the full powers of the Online Safety Act had taken effect.

These include:

• Clear and consistent terms of service prohibiting illegal and hateful content
• Swiftly taking down illegal content, and prioritising moderation of viral content, with a adequately resourced team
• Effective mechanisms for users to complain about illegal content, including in messaging services
• Assessing if changes to recommender systems need to be made

The August riots brought the UK’s underbelly of extremism into sharp focus, as well as social media’s role in spreading hatred, fake content, and inciting violence. So far, however, social media executives have stayed largely silent, and have not faced any consequences for the role their sites played in the violence.

X owner, Elon Musk, however, shared an interaction with the prime minister in the aftermath of the riots, saying that “civil war is inevitable” while Sir Keir Starmer said social media companies “can and should be doing” more.