Police issued a statement addressing the spread of misinformation following a stabbing in Edinburgh.
The incident, which took place Monday, 2 March, left two people hospitalised. The assailant, 23-year-old Mustada Kokeneh, was charged with two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of assault with danger to life.
Immediately following the incident, racially-motivated misinformation began circulating online.
Claims included that multiple people were stabbed in a terrorist incident, and that the offender stormed a local nursery, taking hostages, a lie perpetrated by far-right activist Tommy Robinson in a post retweeted by Elon Musk.
The misinformation led to an anti-immigration protest on 6 March, following comments from Reform Scotland leader, Malcom Offord, who linked the attack to “a massive insurge of immigrants.”
Despite basing his comments on photographs of the attacker and claiming the information came from a taxi driver, Offord denies fuelling racial tensions.
International attention prompted Chief Inspector Scott Kennedy to issue a statement condemning the speculation, “which could cause further distress in the local community.”
Kennedy clarified: “We did not receive any reports of a man attempting to enter a nursery or any educational establishment and this was not a hostage situation.”
The misinformation also reached Edinburgh students, with one believing the incident occurred within the city centre and another that it involved a hostage situation.
One student said it was “revealing” that speculation focused on terrorism “given the guy who did it was a racial minority, whereas if it was a white guy it wouldn’t even be raised.”
“Police Scotland – SF64 OXP – 27-07-2019” by Dougie 409 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.