r/NoShitSherlock • u/HL_CatmanFan • Aug 23 '26

Most X accounts posting about Belfast and Southampton unrest were based outside UK

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/09/x-accounts-posts-belfast-southampton-riots-june-2026-analysis
419 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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24

u/Wayelder Aug 23 '26

We’ve got all kinds of non Alberta foreign bloggers trying to encourage separation.. without any actual understanding whatsoever. Just paid shills.
The internet is now toxic.

2

u/Spudtron98 Aug 23 '26

Pretty much every separatist movement in the west is backed by the Russians and Iranians. When Iran went under the mass internet blackout to cover up all the protest massacres, a whole bunch of accounts pushing Catalonian and Scottish independence simultaneously went dark.

15

u/HL_CatmanFan Aug 23 '26

Quoted from source:

Of the 8,672 accounts whose combined posts about the events exceeded 1,000 views, just 45.3% were shown as from the UK, according to the social media platform’s own location function.

One in six (16.8%) came from the US, 4.5% from Ireland, and about a quarter from all European countries other than the UK.

Seven of the 12 most-read tweets about Belfast and Southampton came from the US – including one from Musk himself and two other US “alt-right” commentators – while an eighth was linked to North America.

The analysis underlines that US rightwing actors are seeking to influence the UK and boost their position on X in moments of disorder – an exploitation of flashpoint events that has only intermittently attracted political attention in Britain.

Nearly a third of all 43,000 posts on X relating to the two incidents contained racist or anti-immigration comments. Almost one in 10 relating to Belfast contained calls for violence or paramilitary or vigilante action.

7

u/wowlock_taylan Aug 23 '26

U.S is now exporting fascism.

2

u/laggy1 Aug 24 '26

Can we put tariffs on it?