TRANSCRIPT:
"Crowd is to disperse immediately as force is about to be used against violent individuals. No further warnings will be given."
Simmering tensions boiling over in the UK, after false rumours spread online that the young man accused of fatally stabbing three young girls at a dance class was a Muslim and an immigrant.
Police have said many of these actions are being organised by shadowy far-right groups, who are mobilising support online.
Steve Rotheram, the Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, agrees.
"Definitely on Tuesday there were people bussed in from all over the country because we know that because we've seen the travel patterns. This was more about local youths being stirred up by social media, by that communication of everybody, 'Let's get together' and all that, thinking it was a bit of fun and purposely tried to stir up some sort of criminality in this area. And, you know, I've been the MP for this area and I'm very, very supportive of the people and the communities, but this was the community inflicting misery on the community."
Marc Owen Jones is an Associate Professor at Northwestern University in Qatar.
He explains how misinformation starts and spreads.
"What you do is you have like low level low followed anonymous accounts that look like regular joes who start asking questions ... and then reply to more influential accounts the idea here is to create a level of gossip or chatter and then hopes that that chatter breaks out."
Disinformation is defined as false information, designed to mislead and influence public opinion for malicious purposes.
Once spread, it's almost impossible to slow down or police in a digitally connected world.
University of Sydney Professor Terry Flews explains.
"It's hard because there's no full picture of what we called the internet... Let's say Chinese language content is circulated through WeChat it will only really come to the attention of the Chinese speaking community".
Misinformation has not been limited to this incident alone.
The U-N this week has also pointed the finger at fossil fuel companies, accusing them of running a massive mis- and disinformation campaign so countries slow down the adoption of renewable energy.
Combating the problem is reliant on governments and companies working together.
Few governments have managed so far.
In Australia the federal government is still hoping to introduce a mis and disinformation bill this year.
The Professor says there have also been increasing calls to make social media companies more accountable - but that's easier said than done.
"Now if companies don't feel any kind of social obligations of that nature ... It will become a lot harder for governments to act in this space".
It's thought at any given time there are hundreds of millions of fake accounts and bots across social media platforms.
And with nearly half the global population expected to vote in elections this year the potential for interference is also high.
New analysis from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate suggests posts from X owner Elon Musk containing misleading claims about this year's U-S election were viewed 1.2 billion times.
"There has been a return to a kind of cold war propaganda politics around the world where nation state actors are prepared to intercede in social media environments not just to promote their own interests but promote particular agendas."
