While a mammoth police operation was still underway inside Westfield at Bondi Junction, a bizarre melting pot of Islamophobes, white supremacists, pro-Russia figures, Zionists and British personalities were busy flooding social media with speculation and wild conspiracy theories.
Little was known about the man who killed six people and injured a dozen more during a frenzied stabbing massacre inside the sprawling shopping centre in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Saturday.
It would be about 18 hours until authorities formally identified the man as James Cauchi, a schizophrenic from Queensland who had been sleeping rough in the months prior.
While police are still investigating the horrific attack, there are no suggestions he was motivated by a particular religious or political ideology. Instead, it appears he was targeting women.
Among the false claims swirling online was one that up-ended the life of an innocent university student.
Muslim terror
X, formerly known as Twitter, and encrypted messaging app Telegram, were inundated with baseless suggestions the incident was an act of terrorism carried out by a Muslim.
Prominent neo-Nazis and white supremacists were also quick to wrongly claim that the man who carried out the horrifying attack was a Muslim terrorist.
Notorious white supremacist Thomas Sewell, leader of neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network, reshared a news story about the attack with a comment reading: “Deportations Now! Make Australia Safe!”
In a message on Telegram, another member of the group pointed to Cauchi appearing to be “brown” in vision circulating on social media as proof of an Islamic terrorism motivation.
Trolls and anonymous accounts repeated the falsehoods and prominent figures with large followings helped to amplify them.
Conservative British broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer, who has 468,000 followers on X, said: “Another day. Another terror attack by another Islamist terrorist. Six dead, others seriously injured, including a baby.”
Irish anti-immigration figure Derek Blighe released a video stating the attacker was “another member of the so-called religion of peace – a Muslim”.
Israeli academic Professor Schmuel Shapira said those who died had “paid a terrible toll” for Australia’s so-called “support to (sic) radical Islam”.
Palestinian ‘uprising’
Popular UK television personality Rachel Riley, a star of quiz shows Countdown and its comedy spin-off 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, implied the stabbings were some kind of Palestinian uprising.
In the now-deleted post on X, she wrote: “For 6 months now, people have been out on our streets proudly calling for the ‘Intifada Revolution’. If you want to know what ‘Globalised Intifada’ looks like, see the Sydney Mall.
“5 victims stabbed to death and 8 transferred to hospital, including a baby, due to one man and a knife. Sydney mall, multiple times over is what they’ve been proudly calling for.”
Riley was eventually forced to apologise but blamed people’s “misunderstandings” for the furore that erupted when Cauchi’s identity was confirmed.
There have been calls for her to be sacked by her network, Channel 4.
Meanwhile, Jewish screenwriter Lee Kern decried that “Muslim terrorists have killed women and attacked babies today” and linked the incident to the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Incorrect descriptions of Bondi as mostly Jewish suburb gave the anti-Israel angle more prominence, with one writing: “I’m still waiting for the flag-waving Palestine protesters to condemn it.”
Then the false suggestions were drown out by a different take – that the attacker was actually a Jew.
Innocent man named
As the horror was unfolding on Saturday afternoon, Maram Susli, who goes by Syrian Girl on X and regularly posts anti-Israel content, was quick to claim the “terrorist” was “an unhinged pro-Israel Zionist”.
On Saturday night, an infamous troll account on Instagram shared an image of Cauchi laying in a pool of blood after being shot by hero police officer Amy Scott.
The account falsely claimed the attacker was Benjamin Cohen.
The name quickly began trending, with tens of thousands of posts on X referencing it, many of which accompanied images of a Sydney university student with the same moniker.
“Jew named Benjamin Cohen stabs Austalians (sic),” Lucas Gage, a former American marine turned life coach, wrote.
Mr Sewell shared a post on X about Sydney mum Ashlee Good being the first victim identified, describing her as an “Aryan woman”, adding: “Also turns out the attacker was a Jew – Ben Cohen.”
Simeon Boikov, a pro-Kremlin content creator who’s currently holed up inside the Russian consulate to avoid arrest, shared Mr Cohen’s multiple times across his X and Telegram profiles.
“The Sydney Bondi mall attacker has been identified by our subscribers as Benjamin Cohen,” he wrote in one post. “Awaiting confirmation. Hmmm. What are the origins of the surname COHEN?”
Late on Saturday, he posted on X: “Cohen? Really? And to think so many commentators tried to initially blame Muslims.”
The next morning just before 6am, Sunrise host Matt Shirvington reported the attacker was “40-year-old Benjamin Cohen”. Seven journalist Lucy McLeod repeated the claim about 10 minutes later.
On Sunday morning, Ms Susli shared a post on X alongside a screenshot of Channel Seven’s story, boasting that her theory had been proven “right”.
“BREAKING: BONDI JUNCTION ATTACKER WAS JEWISH, NAME CONFIRMED AS BENJAMIN COHEN. I was right. I was viscously (sic) attacked for saying that he looks Israeli and that I had info it was Zionism related.”
She later admitted she had named the wrong person, but placed the blame on Channel 7 and said her mistake was “trusting mainstream media”.
Mr Cohen’s father shared a plea to NSW Police to release the true identity of the killer “before this nonsense claiming it was my son causes more harm”.
Channel Seven has apologised for the error, blaming “human error”.
Speaking to news.com.au yesterday, Mr Cohen said it had been “a hectic night and morning” and that he was deeply distressed.
“People don’t really think too hard about what they’re posting and how it might affect someone,” he said. “It’s very dangerous how people could just make stuff up and destroy people’s lives.”
Sarah Schwartz, executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, slammed all those involved in spreading misinformation about the tragedy.
Ms Schwartz also condemned those who sought to inflame Islamophobia, saying: “Right-wing Islamophobic groups and individuals in Australia and overseas have been all too quick to spread disinformation and exploit this tragedy to push their hateful agenda.
“We must not allow this tragedy to be exploited for political gain or to stoke Islamophobia or anti-Semitism.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, believes many of those involved in spreading the misinformation are part of a “calculated campaign”.
“The rise of malicious online actors and disinformation spread on social media is a dangerous phenomenon that must be confronted,” Mr Ryvchin said.
“The aim of these people is to create confusion, undermine credible news sources and manipulate society into turning against familiar enemies.
“The people behind this would relish even greater rates of anti-Semitism in our society and the descent into violence and race war. They want to ruin lives and they want people to get hurt.
“The calculated campaign to convince the world that the Westfield Bondi Junction mass murderer was a Jew played off anti-Israel propaganda depicting Israelis as bloodthirsty monsters.”
In response to an X post slamming Mr Boikov and Ms Susli for incorrectly identifying Mr Cohen, the Australian Jewish Association indicated it has arranged a lawyer for him.
Bizarre conspiracy theories
When police formally identified the killer on Sunday, and clarified that he was neither a terrorist nor Jewish or Muslim, some of those who’d gotten it wrong weren’t in a rush to apologise.
Mr Sewell implied that Israel’s intelligence service was involved in some way, posting on X: “Mossad and media have just in the last 10 minutes launched a new personality of the attacker … the attacker wasn’t Jewish, he was a mentally ill Italian.
“I wonder how many fake IDs the average Mossad agent owns.”
Ms Susli and Mr Boikov also appeared on a video together calling for their supporters to pledge financial assistance if they’re sued.
“If we have to fight and defend ourselves against an Israeli lobby-funded defamation lawsuit against us, would you crowdfund us?” Mr Boikov asked.
A few moments later, he said: “Look at the comments coming in. Everyone saying yes. We haven’t even started and people are already throwing money at us.”
He also filmed himself receiving a call from an ABC journalist about his posts, in which he defends himself by saying he referred to Mr Cohen being identified as “unconfirmed”.