Latent Racism, Potent Digitalism

On July 29 morning a 17-year-old boy entered a hall in Southport, Britain where a dance workshop for girls between the ages of 6 and 11 was going on. He began stabbing the girls and also older people who tried to stop him. His rampage resulted in the death of three girls and critical injuries to two adults. The police arrived fairly quickly on the crime scene and arrested the boy. As he was a minor his identity was not revealed.

This horrible incident was condemned by Britain’s political leadership and by civil society organisations. There was also an outpouring of sympathy for the affected families. Significantly, the police clarified that this terrible crime was not related to terrorism.

The next day some Caucasian British groups that are virulently anti-immigrants began rioting, and targetting establishments catering to immigrants, and also mosques. It is being claimed that this was on account of inaccurate messages that had spread on the social media that the perpetrator of the attack was a Muslim immigrant youth. He was identified on some social media forums as Ali Al Shakati.

The police denied that there was any such individual but their statement was simply brushed aside. As the rioting continued the concerned court took the unusual decision to reveal the identity of the perpetrator despite the fact that the law requires that the identity of minors be kept confidential. It was made publicly known that the attacker was Axel Rudakubana who was born in Britain and whose parents had come from Rwanda.

As his interrogation was going on the motives of his crime were not dwelt upon but some reports indicated that he suffered from autism spectrum disorder. A write up of the Mayo Clinic available, on the internet, states that this condition “…begins in early childhood and eventually causes problems functioning in society—socially in school and at work for example”. This would indicate that Rudakubana may be suffering from a mental issue which led him to commit this terrible crime.

These clarifications did not make any difference to the anti-immigrant groups who continued to riot. As I write these lines tension prevails in Britain because of these groups’ threats to target institutions that assist immigrants continue. The police are on high alert and around 400 protestors and arsonists have been arrested.

A few have been swiftly convicted by the courts and awarded prison sentences. The British government has emphasized its commitment to put down these protests with the full might of the law. Anti-protestors groups have also emerged. They are stressing that these demonstrators are against the British way of life and the values of the country. In course of time the demonstrations would die down but they raise two issues of concern.

One is specific to Britain but extends to Europe and America too. The second has worldwide implications.

The first issue is that of latent racism in Western societies. These societies have moved far from where they were six to seven decades ago and certainly from the period prior to the Second World War when they deeply believed in the superiority of the Caucasian people over those whom they had colonized. Now they have themselves become multi-racial and multi-ethnic. In the US and in Britain non-Caucasians have held the highest offices in these countries.

There are, nevertheless, substantial pockets of those who dislike social changes along with economic power shifts that have taken place in their countries. These groups cannot be called merely fringe elements. It is not only the riots that have occurred in Britain that reinforces the belief of the existing of racist attitudes. T

he approaches of Donald Trump to immigration also confirms the belief. One contributory factor for bringing racism to the surface is the dislocations caused in Western societies by the Digital Revolution with its consequences on jobs of the less affluent Caucasian persons. Now that Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) use is growing this factor will become stronger.

The other issue which has global implications also flows from the Digital Revolution and the already enormous influence of the social media. We are now living in an age when it is becoming impossible to control the instantaneous spread of information as well as disinformation. With AI tools being used it will become even more difficult to differentiate between information and disinformation.

The problem of deep fakes is a reality. The speed, scope and spread of AI tools and their use to create disinformation has to be combatted if major social unrest is to be avoided. In this area the owners of major social media platforms should be positive but, in some cases, it is not so. This was seen in the case of the approach of Elon Musk, the owner of the widely used social media platform X which was earlier called twitter.

Using X Musk made allegations that Britain adopted different approaches in dealing with the White community and others. In a number of posts, he indirectly alleged that the British police was harsher towards White groups than with those of other communities. Musk’s posts could have only inflamed an already difficult situation.

The British government criticized Musk for his negative posts. However, it is now impossible to undo the damage of what Musk and people like him do because even if they are compelled to pull down their posts the damage they cause cannot be totally undone. Thus, they have to show restraint themselves.

The international community has to evolve norms and mechanisms to handle social media platforms so that while they continue to be used to disseminate information they can be prevented from causing deep social and political unrest.