Disinformation detectives

The race riots that shook Britain over the summer were sparked by a fake news story invented by a revenue scalping website in Pakistan. It claimed that the man who’d attacked a dance group in Southport and murdered children was a Muslim illegal immigrant under surveillance by MI6. Before the story could be exposed as false, it’d spread like wildfire online and put into the mainstream by Far Right politicians.

A startup called Valent Projects were the ones who exposed the culprits behind this fake story. Founded by Amil Khan, they root out online manipulation networks and help companies and governments counter disinformation attacks.

He and Aaron talk about the prevalence of online manipulation, how it is radicalising young straight men and older people, as well as how it’s unlikely that the British government could successfully regulate the threat.

If you want any books mentioned AND support independent stores in the UK, visit the strategyaaron Bookshop page: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/strategyaaron

Other links:

Valent Project’s site

Aaron’s site

Aaron’s Instagram

Speaking of disinformation and the Far Right, check out Andrew Naughtie’s recent article on JD Vance

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