EDL Spreads Fake News About Pub Banning Armed Forces

Recently, the English Defence League (EDL) shared a story claiming a Leicester pub “enforced a new scheme which seeks to ban all British military personnel from entering their premises in fear of upsetting local non British citizens”.

Rumours about The Globe pub were originally circulated via a blog named the Daily Bale, a far-right blog that seems to defame innocent people and make up stories.

The Daily Bale post was accompanied by a picture of a couple (also seen in the thumbnail above) which the site claimed was the landlord and landlady, but in reality, it was a couple from a pub in Cheshire. The picture had been lifted from a totally different, positive and unconnected story.

The story itself was found as untrue, according to the pub themselves...

 ...and the police, who confirmed that the bogus posts were false.

After the story was shared, members of staff received a barrage of threatening and abusive phone calls from people who believed in it, including members of the EDL.

Angry people harassed the pub and the venue had to be closed for a short while due to fears about the safety of staff. Here are examples of the threats some EDL supporters gave on the official Facebook Page.

The EDL later apologised for sharing the post when more people found out the truth. But why they shared it in the first place without knowing it was true is a question we all need to be asking.

This is not the first time the EDL has shared fake stories to whip up tensions between communities. Click here for the Top 10 lies circulated by the EDL.

Further reading:

1. EDL post made up story shocker! Globe pub in Leicester threatened with attack
2. EDL target Leicester pub with death threats