The cost of false rumours on the people of Kent

The following letter by Connie Nolan was published in The Guardian on 15 August 2024 and refers to the rumours of riots on Wednesday 7 August 2024.

I am a councillor in Canterbury, and false rumours circulating on Tuesday last week meant that traders didn’t open for the Wednesday market, so they lost money. False rumours on the Wednesday said that there was a riot at the bus station – there wasn’t, but people decided not to travel in. False rumours about smashed windows and closed shops meant that the normally very busy streets were almost devoid of people. Shops missed out on trade. Canterbury cathedral closed its gates to tourists.
It’s not just X but also Elon Musk who amplified people’s fears. I’m pleased that people who spread false rumours have been charged. I will pay tribute to the police who made sure that the 40 or so protesters couldn’t access Canterbury mosque, and the security guards and council enforcement officers who patrolled the city’s streets to reassure people.

The effects in Canterbury

It is worth pondering the cost of false rumours in light of the information about Canterbury given in Connie’s letter.

Canterbury Cathedral is one of the most visited Cathedrals in England. It needs £30,000 a day to maintain. Most of this is gained from visitor income from selling tickets to tourists at cost of £17 each.* An August day during the school holidays could attract hundreds of visitors to the Cathedral. Some of those people could easily stay at home or replan their trips, but it is more difficult for tourists on a tight schedule. Those same tourists frequent the souvenir shops that closed due to the rumours. The market traders made their own decision not to open the market as they feared loss of stock if a riot developed.

It was decided that the greatest security risk was to the Canterbury Mosque which is situated near the University of Kent, so this is where the police riot teams were deployed to ensure protesters could not gain access to it.

The bus station is an important hub for bus travel across the county. Some people travel by bus to get to the Kent and Canterbury hospital. There are some services, such as the skin clinic, which are centralised there, drawing patients from across the region of the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust. Some of these patients would have waited months for an appointment, only to have to give it a miss because of fears of a riot at the bus station. Some would have had signs of melanoma, which can grow to be life-threatening in six weeks.

Other towns affected

The other two towns in Kent which were affected by the riots and the rumours, according to the BBC reports, were Chatham and Dover. In Chatham it is reported that 150 anti-immigration protesters were faced with 50 anti-racism protesters. The police teams in riot gear kept them apart on opposite sides of the Maidstone Road. Kent Online reported that the anti-racism protesters carried signs ‘Stop the Far Right’ and ‘Medway Stand up to Racism’. When they shouted: “Refugees welcome”, the anti-immigration protestors shouted: “No, you are not”, and one person shouted: “Not in my Town” while waving the Union Jack. Two people were arrested: one for shouting racial abuse and one for homophobic comments to a police officer.

In Dover, according to Kent Online, many traders chose to close early, including Nando’s. However, the advertised Dino Day in Pencester Gardens, a dinosaur-themed children’s event, had gone ahead as planned. There was a small counter-demonstration in the Priory Lane car park, with protestors carrying signs of ‘Not full’ and ‘Keep the fascists out of Dover’. There was a scuffle when a photographer tried to photograph them, and he was led away in a police car.

Carelessness and the spreading of harmful content

In conclusion, good policing in the county prevented worse disorder. But Connie’s point is worth pondering: there is still a cost to false rumours. During the second world war, there was a British poster with the slogan: “ZIPP IT! CARELESS TALK COST LIVES.” Can anyone think of a slogan to stop the careless use of the share button on phones that infects thousands with false, and costly, rumours?

Sensational headlines spread rapidly. Telegram, reportedly used by the far right to spread these rumours, can circulate to 200,000 users at a click. Social media companies are in the business of click counts and monetising attention. Legislation against harmful content, as in the UK online safety bill last year, has yet to be tested in the courts. We might be about to see if the new EU laws are strong enough as the French authorities have just arrested Pavel Durov, the owner of Telegram, on multiple charges of spreading harmful content.

So, while waiting to see the effects of these new laws, we also have to hope that more public awareness of the harm caused will induce more people to “ZIPP IT!’

*Further clarification from the Cathedral Press Officer once he returned from holiday is
“As a precaution, we did decide to close The Precincts/grounds to the public at 5pm, with access for our 5.30pm Evensong service only. This did mean that our usual 5-9pm free Precincts access wasn’t available that day – which would have disappointed many tourists – but this wouldn’t have impacted our visitor income.”