Authorities have urged people not to speculate online after a car crashed into a crowd that had gathered to watch Liverpool FC’s Premier League victory parade.
Paul Doyle, 53, from West Derby, was arrested following the incident.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, lots of people took to social media to speculate about why the car was driven into the crowd. People also discussed the identity of the car’s driver, with some sharing zoomed in footage of the incident in a bid to have a closer look.
Liverpool City Council leader, Councillor Liam Robinson, said: "I would urge people not to speculate as to the motives behind this appalling incident and to allow Merseyside Police to conduct their investigation.”
Dal Babu, former chief superintendent at the Metropolitan Police, told BBC 5 Live it’s likely the police released the ethnicity and race of the suspect “to dampen down some of the speculation from the far right, that continues on X even as we speak, that this was a Muslim extremist."
Why does fake news spread?
When a serious news story happens, it will often trend on social media platforms and search engines as people attempt to find out more about it.
The search term ‘liverpool news’ was top of Google Trends with 1m+ searches following the incident, while on TikTok popular searches included ‘car drives into crowd liverpool’ and ‘liverpool parade incident’.
With such high volumes of information being posted and shared, some of it can be taken out of context and that can lead to the spread of fake news.
People are often angry and upset after hearing about this type of news so they will look on social media for posts that reflect how they are feeling.
It can be tempting to in with this speculation but spreading this type of misinformation can fuel hatred, and could even result in the person who posted or shared the message getting charged by the police.
Fake news posts are often written to play on our emotions, and this means it’s more likely that we will share them with others. These posts might contain misinformation (false content shared accidentally by people who don’t know that the information is inaccurate) or disinformation (things deliberately made up for a specific purpose such as making people angry or to incite hatred).
How can you check if a story has been taken out of context?
It’s always a good idea to check if the information is coming from a reliable source and to compare different posts and videos that will help you to determine if a story is accurate.
Look for posts that have come from trusted news websites or official police s and check whether they are reporting a similar narrative to what you are seeing elsewhere.
Be careful of s that are designed to look like reputable news sites, and check details such as handles for slight variations in the spelling of names to avoid getting caught out.
You should also take a look at the comments on a post before sharing as these can help you to decide if something has been taken out of context.
How to spot fake images
In the aftermath of the Liverpool incident, some people also shared images that they claimed showed the suspect. While some s took these posts at face value, others disputed whether they were accurate and posted links to an original video which they claimed the image had been sourced from. It's always a good idea to look at the comments under an image before you share it.
There were also images shared that some s claimed had been created using AI. Taking a closer look at the details of an image and doing a reverse image search are useful ways of working out whether it’s genuine.
How can you avoid sharing fake news?
If you are using social media platforms for your news, it’s important to think about whether the source is reliable and if the is really what or who it claims to be.
Emotion fuels fake news so if what you are reading is making you feel angry, it might be clickbait that is playing on your emotions to get a reaction and to encourage you to share.
It’s best to look for posts that are from reputable news outlets to make sure the information is correct and unbiased. Some social media platforms label posts that may contain fake news so look out for community notes that have been added by other s. You can also use the report functionality if available to alert a platform’s s about any posts that you think contain fake news.
A 2023 Ofcom report found that 71% of 16-24-year-olds use social media for news and the government has said that social media companies “should and could be doing more” to tackle the spread of fake news. The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also warned that social media is “not a law free zone” and said that “whether you’re directly involved or whether you’re remotely involved… you will be put before the courts if you’ve broken the law”.
We saw this last year when more than 30 people were arrested over social media posts that were shared after the murder of three children in Southport.
So always stop and think before you decide to hit share on social media as the consequences could be serious.
If you're upset about the news, you can find advice on the Newsround site, plus you can get wellbeing tips and advice on the Study site.
This article was published in May 2025.
Not sure if the news you’re seeing on social media is true or false? Can you always tell if the things you see online are real or fake? Learn how to get the other side of the story with our quizzes, videos and explainers.
