Benjamin Cohen, the 20-year-old student Channel Seven wrongly reported was the Bondi Junction killer, has asked NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb to prosecute social media users who posted the misinformation.
Cohen was misidentified as the man who killed six people in Bondi Junction Westfield on social media — claims Channel 7 then reported as fact. The result was a misinformation storm, with Cohen receiving hate messages, threats and anti-Semitic comments about his Jewish heritage in the frenzy.
Cohen sued Channel 7 for defamation over its report, and settled on an undisclosed amount.
However, his lawyer Patrick George has said in a statement that Cohen is now requesting police prosecute social media users who “wilfully identified” Cohen as the attacker on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“These persons maliciously posted the false accusation for their own improper purposes, in some cases simply to draw attention to themselves,” George claimed.
“It spread like wildfire not just in Australia but throughout the world over the Saturday night.”
George said and Cohen handed evidence to police, identifying uses of social media that they called “malicious and irresponsible use of social media.”
“We have requested the Commissioner of Police to consider prosecution for offences … for menacing, harassing and offensive conduct… criminal defamation [and]… for inciting violence on racial grounds,” George said, per ABC News.
Misinformation was rife on X’s platform following the mass stabbing, with accusations the killer — who was later identified as 40-year-old Queensland man Joel Cauchi — was Muslim.
Racist and Islamophobic comments took over the site and spread like wildfire, until Cohen was wrongly identified — then the messages took on an anti-Semitic tone, with ABC News reporting Cohen’s name circulated in pro-Kremlin social media accounts.
In NSW, certain online behaviours like sending offensive messages or posting malicious misinformation can be the subject of criminal charges either under the Using a Carriage Service to Menace/Harass/Offend or as criminal defamation, according to law firm Armstrong Legal.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner investigates cyber bullying of children, adult cyber abuse, image-based abuse (sharing, or threatening to share, intimate images without consent) and illegal and restricted content.
For a post to be considered “adult cyber abuse”, it must be covered by the definition in the Online Safety Act, which reserves the term for severely abusive material posted with the intention to cause a person serious harm.
The threshold is actually very high, mostly to protect free speech — but even if the posts about Cohen did meet that criteria, the eSafety Commissioner typically helps a complainant take down offensive posts. Criminal prosecutions are well out of its jurisdiction.
PEDESTRIAN.TV has contacted NSW Police for comment, who said prosecuting social media users was a matter for the Attorney General (who has also been contact for comment).
