Police bosses have been warned to step up and provide clear, accurate details in the wake of major incidents to prevent conspiracy theories from running wild. The UK’s terror watchdog, Jonathan Hall KC, has urged officers to avoid staying silent after atrocities, stressing that if they don’t take the lead, others will fill the gap with misinformation.
His comments come in the aftermath of the Southport killings, where false claims spread rapidly on social media, leading to riots, protests, and widespread outrage. Hall rejected Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s suggestion to expand the definition of terrorism to include mass killings, arguing that such a move could harm free speech and lead to a situation where far more people are labelled as terrorists.
