How the Liverpool car-ramming sparked the spread of misinformation
A week after a car ploughed into crowds during a Liverpool FC victory parade, turning scenes of joy into horror, UK police have named the suspect as Paul Doyle.
Doyle, who comes from the Liverpool area, has been charged with intentionally causing grievous bodily harm and six other serious counts.
Almost 80 people – aged between nine and 78 – were injured in the incident last Monday, with at least 50 of them treated in hospitals.
The city had been celebrating Liverpool's 20th Premier League title when the driver ploughed into fans. Police believe he had tailed an ambulance in order to pass road blocks onto Water Street, which was closed for the victory parade.
Merseyside Police swiftly disclosed the suspect's nationality and ethnicity hours after the attack, describing him as a 53-year-old white, British man from the Liverpool area. Shortly afterwards, they ruled out terrorism as the motive of the attack and said they believed the man acted alone.
Experts praised the police's intervention to quickly fill the "information void."
An attack in the English town of Southport last July – in which a 17-year-old murdered three young girls – triggered the wild spread of disinformation about the suspect's identity, culminating in violent street riots.
Experts say police acted swiftly last week amid the Liverpool car ramming incident in a bid to stamp out speculation and avoid any unrest.
Yet, despite the police's swift action, speculation and false claims about the suspect still spread rapidly on social media in the hours after the crash.
Social media posts shared later on Monday evening, after police revealed a 53-year-old had been detained, claim to show a screenshot of the "real" driver of the Ford Galaxy car that had rammed into the crowd.
A post shared at 21:46 local time on Monday reads: "The initial reports said he was 53 years old and white. Those reports appear to be wrong. This is the driver from the van. Young, and definitely not white. Coverup already running."
The same claim was replicated in posts across X, Facebook and Instagram, falsely claiming the police were hiding the real identity of the driver.
The claim is false and Merseyside police have confirmed to Euroverify that the man in the photo isn't the suspect.
Several posts relaying the false claim remain on X, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform, without any Community Notes to alert users that the information is untrue.
We traced the screenshot of the man to a TikTok video shared from the Liverpool parade earlier that same evening.
The man can be seen joking around, entering the police car and wearing a policeman's hat. TikTok users point out in the comments on the video that he's being falsely signalled as the driver in other social media posts.
According to Euroverify's analysis, this TikTok video was taken on a location on James Street in Liverpool city centre, which was closed for the Liverpool FC parade, according to information provided by the club, suggesting it was taken during the celebrations on 26 May.
Another video shared widely online shows a man struggling with police on the ground at the scene of the incident.
This man is falsely described as the "53-year-old white, British man" detained by police, with social media users claiming he was not the driver of the vehicle.
"Apparently the guy on the floor is the 53-year-old white man who was also arrested, NOT the driver!" one Facebook post claims.
We identified the location of the scene as Water Street in Liverpool's city centre, where the crash happened. The images are consistent with corroborated images of the scene of the crash.
But the claim is false: Merseyside Police confirmed to Reuters that the man pictured in this video is not the suspect detained.
Euroverify detected further uncorroborated claims about the suspect, including several posts alleging he is a member of the UK police force and that a cover up is underway to conceal his identity.
The suspect has since been identified as a former Royal Marine, who is a father of three and a local businessman.
The UK is about to see the biggest increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War as it seeks to send 'a message to Moscow,' the British defence secretary John Healey said on Sunday.
Healey said plans for defence spending will be enough to transform the country's military, though he said he does not expect the number of soldiers – currently at a historic low – to rise until the early 2030s.
The British government aims for defence spending to hit 2.5% of the country's national income by 2027 – with Healey saying plans are still on track to reach this target.
There is 'no doubt' this figure will hit 3% by the 2030s, Healey believes.
Westminster will on Monday respond to a strategic defence review overseen by Healey and former NATO secretary general George Robertson.
This review is expected to be the most consequential since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and make a series of recommendations advising the UK on how it can deal with emerging threats both on the military front and in the cyberspace.
It will reportedly commit £1.5 billion (€1.78 billion) to build six new factories to make munitions to revive the UK's industrial base.
Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine highlighted deficiencies in the West's ability to procure weapons – with UK military officers warning about the nation's low amount of munitions.
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