What connects a father living in Lahore, Pakistan, an amateur hockey player from Nova Scotia, and a man named Kevin from Houston, Texas?

All linked to Channel3Now, the site that published false information about the 17-year-old accused in the attack on Southport and went viral on the X platform.

Channel3Now also falsely reported that the attacker had arrived by boat to Britain last year and was seeking asylum.

Channel3Now’s posts, combined with untrue claims from other sources that the attacker was Muslim, were instrumental in triggering the unprecedented riots that broke out in late July across the UK, in many cases targeting mosques and Muslim communities.

The BBC has tracked down a number of people linked to Channel3Now, spoken to their friends and colleagues, who confirmed they are real people, and spoke to a man who claims to ‘run’ the site.

The BBC reporter concluded that this is a commercial enterprise trying to gather news about crime while making money from social media. It found no evidence to substantiate claims that Channel3Now’s disinformation could be linked to the Russian state.

The person claiming to be in the management of Channel3Now said the publication of the fake name “shouldn’t have happened, it was wrong, but not intentional.”

The fake article was not signed and it is not clear who exactly wrote it.

An amateur hockey player from Nova Scotia, named James, was the first person he spotted linking to Channel3Now. His name rarely appears in other articles on the site, and a picture of him appears on a related LinkedIn page.

The Facebook account linked to James has just four friends, one of whom is named Farhan. His Facebook profile says he is a reporter for the site.

The journalist then sent a message to dozens of their followers. The social media account of the school where James played hockey and one of his friends confirm that he is a real person who graduated four years ago.

His friend says James wants to know “what his involvement in the article would be.” After the reporter replies that there is no doubt that James is connected to Channel3Now, the friend stops answering.

Farhan’s former colleagues, several based in Pakistan, confirm his identity. On his social media profiles he posts about his Islamic faith and his children. His name does not appear in the fake article.

Not long after she sent a message, Farhan blocked her on Instagram. But finally he receives a reply from the official Channel3Now email.

The contact person says his name is Kevin and he is based in Houston, Texas. He refuses to reveal his last name and it is not clear if the Kevin he really is who he says he is, yet he agrees to answer questions via email.

Kevin says he’s speaking from the site’s “head office” in the US, which matches both the times of social media posts on some of the site’s profiles and the times Kevin responds to emails.

He first signs off as “the editor” before saying he’s actually “verifying.” He declines to share the name of the site’s owner, who says he is worried “not only for himself but for everyone who works for him.”

Kevin claims there are “more than 30” people in the US, UK, Pakistan and India working for the site, usually hired by freelance sites.

It says how Farhan in particular was not involved in the false Southport story, for which the website publicly apologized and blamed “our UK-based team”.

In the wake of the false allegations shared by Channel3Now, he was accused of being linked to the Russian state based on old videos on his Russian-language YouTube channel.

Kevin says the site bought a former Russian-language YouTube channel focused on rally cars “many years ago” and later changed its name.

There were no videos posted on the account for about six years before it started uploading content related to Pakistan – where Farhan is based and where the site admits it has affiliates.

“Just because we bought a YouTube channel from a Russian seller doesn’t mean we have a partnership,” says Kevin.

“We are an independent digital news site covering news from around the world.”

“As many stories as possible”

Kevin went on to say that the site is a commercial enterprise and makes a profit by covering “as many stories as possible”. Most of his stories are accurate – seemingly from reliable sources about shootings and car accidents in the US.

However, the site published other false speculations about the Southport shooter, as well as the person who tried to assassinate Donald Trump.

Kevin claims that a small site and his X account cannot be responsible for the storm that broke out in Britain after Southport.

She is partly right, the BBC journalist notes, adding that the Channel3Now false story was reposted by many social media accounts.

Several of them were based in the UK and the US and have a history of disinformation on issues such as the pandemic, vaccines and climate change.

These profiles were able to gather a significant following and promote their content to more people, following the changes Elon Musk made after buying Twitter.

Estimates from users with less than half a million followers say accounts can bring in $10-$20 per million views or impressions on X.

Some of these misinformation content accounts get more than a million impressions on almost every post and share posts multiple times a day.

Other social media companies – besides X – also allow users to earn money from views. However, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook have shut down profiles that post content that violates their misinformation guidelines.

Aside from rules against AI-powered content, X has no guidelines for disinformation.

X did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.