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The country was bracing for more unrest, with fresh protests planned after a weekend of demonstrations turned into anti-immigrant riots.

A handful of protesters, two in masks, face a group of riot police officers with shields. In the background are a crowd, a fire and smoke in the air.

Anti-immigration protesters clashed with police officers in Rotherham, England, on Sunday.Credit…Hollie Adams/Reuters. The authorities in Britain were bracing for more potential unrest on Wednesday after days of violent rioting spurred by disinformation around a deadly stabbing rampage.

Protests over the weekend devolved into violence in more than a dozen towns and cities, and with messages on social media calling for wider protests and counterprotests on Wednesday, the British authorities were on high alert. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet held emergency meetings to discuss what has become the first crisis of his recently elected government, and thousands of police officers fanned out across the country.

Here’s what we know as the country girds for more potential violence.

Where has the unrest taken place?

Protesters over the weekend took to the streets of a dozen cities across Britain, most of them in England. Trouble broke out from Aldershot in the south to Sunderland in the north and Liverpool in the west. Belfast, in Northern Ireland, was also drawn into the fray. In some cases, the protesters were merely unruly, but in others the violence was far more pronounced.

On Sunday, rioters set upon a hotel that was housing asylum seekers in the town of Rotherham, in northern England, breaking windows before surging inside as the police struggled to control them. No guests were injured in the melee, the police said.

In Middlesbrough, a group of rioters, some masked, hurled bottles and rocks at officers. Cars were set on fire, and at least nine people were arrested. On Saturday, a library and a food bank were set alight in Liverpool as groups damaged and looted businesses, and in Hull, fires were set and storefronts smashed in the city center.

Dozens of police officers were injured, including some that required trips to the hospital.

What set off the protests?

The unrest began after a teenager wielding a knife attacked a children’s dance class early last week in the seaside town of Southport, which is near Liverpool. Three children were killed, and eight were wounded.

The suspect was born and raised in Britain, but online rumors soon circulated that he was an undocumented immigrant. To counter those false claims, the authorities took the unusual step of publicly identifying him. But with migration a flashpoint issue in Britain, especially on the far right, the rumors were all it took to set off violence.

Extremist groups urged their followers to take to the streets, and on the day after the stabbings, they began to do so, starting in Southport.

How have the authorities responded?

The weekend riots prompted a heavy police response. Nearly 4,000 additional officers were deployed, a law enforcement association said. And a government order gave officers in some places special powers to disperse any gatherings or “antisocial behavior,” the police said in a statement.

More than 400 people have been arrested, and about 100 have been charged, Mr. Starmer said after an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday — the second in two days.

The prime minister, who has characterized the riots as “far-right thuggery,” encouraged prosecutors to name and shame those convicted to dissuade others from joining the violent rampages.

“I’m now expecting substantive sentencing before the end of the week,” Mr. Starmer said. “That should send a very powerful message to anybody involved, either directly or online, that you are likely to be dealt with within a week and that nobody, but nobody, should involve themselves in this disorder.”

BJ Harrington, the head of public order for Britain’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, said that online disinformation had been “a huge driver of this appalling violence.”

Intelligence teams, detectives and neighborhood officers, Mr. Harrington said, were working to identify the people fomenting the violence.

“They won’t win,” he said.

What’s happening on Wednesday?

The police are monitoring at least 30 locations where far-right groups have called for demonstrations on Wednesday night, according to the BBC. Places like Kent, Liverpool and Rotherham — which experienced earlier violence — were on alert. The police in London also warned of “events planned by hateful and divisive groups across the capital.”

In response, groups opposing racism and xenophobia called for counterprotests.

How are the authorities handling online incitement?

Social media has acted as an accelerant throughout the protests, with disinformation fueling far-right and anti-immigrant groups. Britain and other democracies have found that policing the internet is legally murky terrain, with individual rights and free speech protections balanced against a desire to block harmful material.

In his remarks on Tuesday, Mr. Starmer said that some arrests involved people accused of inciting violence online.

The first person to be convicted over online posts since the riots, according to the Crown Prosecution Service, was a 28-year-old man from Leeds who posted messages on Facebook about attacking a hotel that housed asylum seekers. It said that the man, Jordan Parlour, had pleaded guilty and been convicted of using threatening words or behavior to stir up racial hatred.

Mr. Starmer has also called out social media companies for misinformation on their platforms, but holding them accountable could be tricky. Britain adopted a law last year that requires social media companies to introduce protections for child safety and to prevent and quickly remove illegal content like terrorism propaganda and revenge pornography. The law is less clear about how companies must treat misinformation and incendiary xenophobic language.

What are the political implications?

The riots are the first political crisis for Mr. Starmer, who took office a month ago after his Labour Party defeated the Conservatives, who had been in government for 14 years.

While in power, the Conservatives tried to capitalize on public unhappiness over immigration, vowing to reduce it (though failing to do so). But in recent days they joined Labour in condemning the violent protests.

Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, now the opposition leader, said the unrest had “nothing to do with the tragedy in Southport.” The police, he said, have “our full support to deal with these criminals swiftly.”

Source: New York Times