By Tanya Sakzewski
Activists, politicians and regulators are calling for an end to the online weaponisation of fear and the spreading of hateful, false, racist and anti-immigration information, following days of violence in Northern Ireland.
Protestors took to the streets across Northern Ireland after a knife attack in Belfast on Monday 8 June which caused serious injury to the victim Stephen Ogilvie. A 30-year-old man who is originally from Sudan has appeared in court on Wednesday charged with attempted murder.
Following the attack, images were shared online, which police in Northern Ireland say were false. In a statement the police said: “We are aware of inaccurate images circulating claiming to be the victim after the attack. They are not related to anyone involved in the attempted murder. We believe these images are being used to arouse fear and hatred.”
Exploiting fear online
As Paul Reilly, Senior Lecturer in Communications, Media and Democracy, University of Glasgow, wrote, the far-right was quick to exploit the situation to further an anti-immigration agenda. “You could be forgiven for thinking this playbook has been seen before. In the past two years, far-right actors have used online platforms to weaponise incidents involving minorities as part of their anti-immigration campaigns. These incidents include allegations of an attempted rape of a teenage girl in Ballymena, the murder of three young girls in Southport and the murder of Henry Nowak in Southampton.”
Following the latest incident, far-right activist Tommy Robinson urged supporters to join protests on social media, providing a list of locations for planned protests in the UK. He framed the attack in Belfast as “yet another invader attack on our people”. The post was reshared by Elon Musk.
Migrants attacked
Protests were held across Northern Ireland on Tuesday. Houses and cars were set alight in Belfast, with families fleeing their homes.
HOPE not hate said that rioters specifically targeted homes of non-white residents or residents suspected to be migrants, with several businesses also targeted in racially motivated attacks.
CEO Nick Lowles said in a statement on Wednesday 10 June: “People are understandably appalled, and are right to be upset and disturbed by such extreme violence in their community. But what followed last night in both East and West Belfast was organised, targeted, racially motivated violence. Rioters set fire to the cars and homes of non-white residents, and smashed their windows with the explicit intention of intimidating any racialised people and driving them out of their own neighbourhoods.”
He added that the violence followed protests that were widely promoted across far right communities online. “There is no justification, none, for exploiting this tragedy to stir up hatred against any community.”
Condemnation and calls for calm
Others have also called out attempts to stir racial hatred online.
Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Director at Amnesty International UK, said: “Responsibility lies not only with those who carried out these attacks, but also with those who have contributed to a climate in which racism can flourish, including those who have cynically exploited public anger and those stoking division online from afar.”
He added: “This was racist violence on a shocking scale. It did not emerge in a vacuum. The flames that burned last night were fuelled by those who sought to blame entire communities for the actions of an individual and by politicians who have used inflammatory rhetoric instead of showing leadership.”
In an interview with the BBC, Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister Naomi Long criticised “commentators on the far right who were clearly trying to stoke racial tensions” saying “bad faith actors” had incited racism in the city. “What distresses and disturbs me is there are those that prior to yesterday would have struggled to find Belfast on a map, who are online, who are sharing incitement and encouragement for people and weaponising the fear that people genuinely have about what happened to try and turn this into some kind of anti-immigration issue or a racist protest.”
She added: “Ultimately if you’re driving people from their homes based on the colour of their skin, you can’t dress that up any other way – it’s racism.”
Ogilvie’s family issued a statement on Wednesday night saying they needed to speak out “after witnessing a lot of false information on social media”.
“We have been left feeling disgusted by the scenes that unfolded yesterday across Northern Ireland in the wake of what happened. We want to make it absolutely clear that to do this in response is not supported by our family, and peaceful protest is only ever the way forward. We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including from within our healthcare system and hospitality sector, and we depend on them to make our country work.”
The family stated they do not want this “terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility”.
Hate crimes on the rise in Northern Ireland
Amnesty International warned in May that racist violence in Northern Ireland was “spiralling out of control”. The warning followed the release of new police figures showing record levels of racist hate crimes and incidents.
Data from the Police Service Northern Ireland revealed there were more race, sectarian, disability and faith/religion incidents in the12 months from 1st April 2025 to 31st March 2026 when compared with the previous twelve months.
Crimes with a race hate motivation saw the largest increase, with the number of incidents with a race motivation the highest 12 month level since the recording of these motivations began in 2004-2005. The data also revealed that eight of the ten highest monthly levels of race incidents were recorded between June 2025 and March 2026.
Violence and racial hatred in Scotland
Protests have also taken place in Scotland in response to the attack in Belfast, with activists, politicians and other groups calling out the use of harmful narratives to stir up hatred.
The Public and Commercial Services Union Scotland (PCS) issued a statement following the mobilisation of far-right supporters in Scottish towns and cities. Its executive committee condemned “the repugnant scenes witnessed in Glasgow city centre and in other Scottish towns and cities where far-right elements mobilised to spread fear, racism and violence on our streets”.
“We are particularly concerned by the targeting of spaces and narratives connected to tragedy and grief in an attempt to inflame tensions. This is a cynical and dangerous tactic, and one that must be called out wherever it arises. The growth of the right is organised and well-resourced, and it poses a real threat not only to minority communities, but to trade union members and to women’s rights.”
Scottish Refugee Council Chief Executive Sabir Zazai said: “Words have consequences. We are seeing in real time the human cost of irresponsible language being deliberately used by some politicians, in our headlines and on social media to whip up fear and hatred. Harmful narratives are being peddled as facts. This is resulting in violence on our streets and people being targeted because of the colour of their skin.”
He added: “The toxic rhetoric and use of falsehoods to scapegoat people seeking safety needs to stop. People seeking protection are not a problem needing to be solved – it is the systemic failures in housing, cost of living and the immigration system that need to be fixed.”
Race dominates hate crimes in Scotland
The Scottish government’s first annual report on hate crime since the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which introduced two new protected characteristics-of age and variation in sex characteristics, came into force was released in February. It revealed over three-fifths (62%) of hate crimes included a race aggravator.
When the victim wasn’t a police officer, three-quarters (or 75%) had a victim from a visible minority ethnic group. This compares to 7% of Scotland’s population at the time of the last census in 2022. The most common types of prejudice shown were against the Black community (34%), against the Pakistani community (32%) and General xenophobia (17%).
The responsibility of online platforms
The violence in Northern Ireland prompted a warning by the regulator Ofcom to online platforms about an increased risk of them being used to “stir up hatred, provoke violence and commit other offences” under UK law.
In an open letter to online service providers operating in the UK, Ofcom said: “Following a serious knife attack that took place in Belfast on Monday night, we have seen civil unrest in the city, some of which appears to have been incited online… we are reminding online service providers of their duties under the UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 to assess and mitigate the risks of illegal activity occurring on their sites and apps. This can include content amounting to offences of stirring up hatred or provoking violence.”
The regulator says it is monitoring the situation closely as previous crises have shown how a sudden increase in the amount of illegal content circulating online can manifest in hate crime and violence in the real world.
As we approach the International Day for Countering Hate Speech on June 18, these incidents and warnings are a reminder of the scale and speed online hate can spread and the dire consequences hateful narratives and rhetoric can have on communities and social cohesion.
