ECAJ calls for doxxing to be made illegal
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has reacted to last week’s making public members of a WhatsApp group of 600 Jewish people in the creative and artistic fields.
Daniel Aghion is the president of the ECAJ.
Daniel Aghion
He said: “Since 1944, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry has been the elected national representative body of the Jewish community, uniting and leading nearly two hundred diverse community groups throughout our country. In that time, we have endured difficult times and overcome many challenges, but never have we seen a period where so many in our community are so fearful for their physical security and loss of livelihood.
In the last few days, this has been caused by the publication of lists containing the names, faces and other personal information of hundreds of individuals whose only common trait is that they are Jewish. This has been done with coordination and with malice, in many cases resulting in harassment, death threats directed to named individuals and their children, professional and financial loss, vandalism of premises, and extensive psychological harm.
The individuals responsible for this are engaged in practices synonymous with the Nazi era. We cannot, as a free and democratic society, permit the compilation of racial blacklists and the ensuing exclusion, vilification and harassment to take place.
The ECAJ is today calling for reform of the Criminal Code to make it unlawful to post private or identifying information about an individual or group with the intent that the information be used to cause harm to the victim. This abhorrent practice is commonly known as “doxxing” and has no place in our society.
We also call on social media platforms to permanently deactivate the accounts of those found to have used their accounts for the purposes of doxxing. Social media is intended to connect individuals and communities and allow the rapid exchange of information. Where accounts are used to threaten the lives and livelihoods of others, the platforms have a duty to act.
We urge any members of our community who feel endangered by this doxxing attack to immediately contact us so that we may direct you to the appropriate legal, mental health support, or security services.
The ECAJ has thanked the members of parliament, Labor, Liberal and Independent who have contacted us to offer their support and convey their outrage. We are prepared to work with you to ensure the protection of the victims and to end the impunity of the perpetrators.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told 2GB that he has asked Attorney General Mark Dreyfus to bring forward legislation in response to the Privacy Act review, including laws that deal with so-called doxxing.
He said that the group had a range of views about the Middle East. He added: “What they have in common is they are members of the Jewish community.
The idea that in Australia, someone should be targeted because of their religion because of their faith, they be Jewish or Muslim or Hindu or Catholic, it’s just completely unacceptable.”
Andre Oboler is the CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute. He said: “Clementine Ford, a controversial social media influencer with over 252,000 followers, and a history of pointing them at those who are critical of her, promoted the list of Jews to her supporters. When online services she used to distribute it removed links and posts for violating their community standards, rather than reflecting, she sought to work around platforms’ policies and repost the content repeatedly.
On Friday (February 9th), the story was published on the front page of The Age, while the data remained available. At least one family was forced into hiding. Others are concerned for their safety. The attack aimed to force Jewish people to silence. Some are locking down their social media accounts, a step that limits engagement and, therefore, reach. Others are closing accounts altogether.
The attack bears a strong resemblance to terrorism. It seeks to put people in fear and force them to do or refrain from certain actions. One person expressed concern in a comment on Ford’s post saying the list could be used by neo-Nazis to target Jews. Another claimed “all Zionists are Nazis” and justified posting the list by saying it was published “so antifascists can attack them”. Given the vast majority of Jews are Zionists, this is essentially support for Jews being targeted in Australia.”
