The real story of the website accused of fuelling Southport riots

The person who gets in touch says he is called Kevin, and that he is based in Houston, Texas. He declines to share his surname and it is unclear if Kevin is actually who he says he is, but he agrees to answer questions over email.

Kevin says he is speaking to me from the site’s “main office” in the US – which fits with both the timings of the social media posts on some of the site’s social media profiles, and the times Kevin replies to my emails.

He signs off initially as “the editor-in-chief” before he tells me he is actually the “verification producer”. He refuses to share the name of the owner of the site who he says is worried “not only about himself but also about everyone working for him”.

Kevin claims there are “more than 30” people in the US, UK, Pakistan and India who work for the site, usually recruited from sites for freelancers – including Farhan and James. He says how Farhan in particular was not involved in the false Southport story, which the site has publicly apologised for, and blamed “our UK-based team”.

In the aftermath of the false claims shared by Channel3Now, it was accused of being linked to the Russian state on the basis of old videos on its YouTube channel in Russian.

Kevin says the site purchased a former Russian-language YouTube channel which focused on car rallies “many years ago” and later changed its name.

There were no videos posted to the account for around six years before it began uploading content related to Pakistan – where Farhan is based and where the site admits to having writers.

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

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

It is possible to buy and re-purpose a channel that has already been monetised by YouTube. It can be a quick way to build an audience, enabling the account to start making money right away.