The UN rights chief has said that anti-immigrant violence rocking Belfast and recent clashes with police in Southampton were “shocking”, criticising “incitement” on social media and elsewhere.
Authorities in Northern Ireland have accused far-right activists – including US tech billionaire Elon Musk – of stoking anti-immigrant violence and divisions as rioters in Belfast torched vehicles and buildings late Tuesday, forcing families to flee their homes.
The disorder, sparked by a brutal knife attack allegedly committed by a Sudanese national, comes with tensions already high in the United Kingdom following skirmishes in southern England last week over the police handling of the murder of a white student by a British Sikh man.
“Dehumanisation of whole groups within a society is totally unacceptable and is frankly despicable,” Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.
“The violence that comes out as a result in… both Northern Ireland and in Southampton were really shocking,” he said.
“Providers” on social media platforms, he insisted, must “take the responsibility seriously that dehumanisation, hate speech, violence and incitement to violence is unacceptable”.
“We cannot tolerate this in today’s world… The polarisation that we see is shocking.”
UK watchdog warns over riot videos
Britain’s media watchdog warned online platforms of the risk of stirring up violence and hatred as posts about Belfast unrest went viral.
“Ofcom has today written to online service providers operating in the UK about the increased risk of their platforms being used to stir up hatred, provoke violence and commit other offences under UK law, in the context of recent civil unrest in Belfast,” the watchdog said in a statement.
Footage of the Belfast attack went viral on social media, with appeals for calm from police and lawmakers going unheeded in some areas of Northern Ireland.
