According to leading experts addressing the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, Australia is currently experiencing an unprecedented surge of toxic online hate speech.
During its third week of public hearings, which follows an extensive period of private deliberations, the commission delved into the severity of online hate speech. It also examined the challenges faced in regulating and monitoring digital platforms.
Over the previous week, testimonies from influential Jewish Australians highlighted the detrimental effects of antisemitic vitriol and misinformation they encounter on digital platforms.
Jewish leaders detail antisemitic abuse
On Thursday, Sarah Schwartz, who serves as the director of the Jewish Council of Australia, shared with the inquiry that she faces online harassment due to her pro-Palestinian stance, often being labeled as a “traitor”.
Schwartz also pointed out that the political exploitation of the Bondi shooting incident has unjustly placed blame on Palestinian and Muslim communities.
“This sends a message not only to the broader Australian public, [but] to Palestinian and Muslim communities that they have to account for antisemitism in a way that no other community is asked to account for it,” she said.
The Jewish Council rejects antisemitism but says criticism of Israel, particularly the actions of its government, is not the same thing.
Dor Foundation chief executive Tahli Blicblau told the inquiry on Tuesday that a comment suggesting disused oil refineries be repurposed as “makeshift concentration camps” had been reported several times over the past week but still remained live.
Blicblau joined Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns in his calls for improved safety measures on social media.
Burns said criticism of specific Israeli policies or Australia’s actions in the Middle East is “fair game” and even encouraged as a sign of people enacting their democratic rights.
But he condemned abuse being levelled at Jewish Australians because of those policies.
An “us and them” narrative, suggesting all Jewish Australians were loyal to the state of Israel and its actions in Gaza, had emerged online, he added.
“A lot of the commentary directed at me suggests somehow I am celebrating … the death of Palestinian kids.
“That is absolutely not the case,” he said.
“It’s a complete dehumanisation of Jewish people.”
Burns said online rhetoric led to real attacks, including an attack against his workplace in June 2024.
Abuse was also levelled against his non-Jewish partner, Victorian Legislative Council member Georgie Purcell, with a “layer of misogyny” on top of it.
He said watching Purcell face abuse because of their relationship was “devastating”.
Calls for expanded police powers for Jewish Australians
On Wednesday, former Westpac co-chief executive and son of billionaire Frank Lowy, Steven Lowy, told the inquiry he has a personal security team that monitors online threats to his family.
He said about 40 people had been referred to police and 1,500 posts were flagged in a four-week period.
“It disturbs me, the volume and prevalence of it, and the serious nature of it,” he said.
“You would be subject to conviction in other areas where this was communicated.”
He used an 18-page submission to the commission to call for increased police powers in every state “for the protection of Jewish Australians and Jewish communal life”.
Bondi attack survivor recounts conspiracy theory attacks
Other witnesses included a Sydney woman who detailed threats her young daughter had received online from fellow school students and Arsen Ostrovsky, who said their experiences following the Bondi massacre had made their children scared to be in public.
Ostrovsky was shot in the head during the December 14 attack and lay bleeding on the grass at the Hanukkah celebration.
A photo of his bleeding scalp, and another of him receiving medical treatment, became part of a conspiracy campaign denying the attacks.
His nine-year-old daughter, who grew up mainly in Israel, found it safer to be there even during war than in Australia, Ostrovsky told the commission on Monday.
“This is the same daughter who, when we go to school, has to go through not one or two, but at least three layers of security,” he said.
Appeals to tech platforms to remove Bondi attack videos
eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant told the inquiry on Thursday that technology had “never been more powerful and guardrails have never been weaker”.
The eSafety Commission launched a trio of legal battles against X owner Elon Musk after gruesome footage of the Bondi massacre remained on the platform.
Inman Grant detailed needing to appeal to X to remove the footage, that families of the victims had viewed.
“We fought hard against X in terms of not allowing that post-mortem Bondi content,” she said.
“But these are mainstream platforms that are fighting for the right and ability to distribute and monetise this content.”
Inman Grant said overseas anti-regulation governments such as the United States were empowering technology platforms to strip back protections and so contributing to online hate speech in Australia.
“The geopolitics is very much playing into the fermentation of hate online because the platforms feel protected in rolling back protection.”
The Online Hate Prevention Institute’s Andre Oboler, who has researched hate speech for more than a decade, said that Reddit and X removed less than a quarter of posts flagged as antisemitic.
Reddit deleted just 17 per cent, while X deleted 24 per cent. YouTube, LinkedIn and Telegram removed just over 40 per cent. TikTok — which had less media flagged than other platforms — deleted about 62 per cent, while Facebook removed 54 per cent.
“X was generally difficult to work with, particularly from Australia,” he said.
Lack of communication between eSafety and police
Police rarely communicate directly with the eSafety Commission as investigations are unfolding, resulting in knowledge gaps about hate speech, the hearing was told.
NSW Police assistant commissioner Leanne McCusker said her team at times worked directly with platforms to issue takedown orders, rather than looping in the eSafety Commission.
McCusker said she needed to consider providing more regular information to the commissioner
The Western Australian police force had tried to draft a memorandum of understanding with the eSafety commission between 2022 and 2024, but it had stalled.
WA Police deputy commissioner Kylie Whitely said since then, the force did not meet regularly with Inman Grant’s team and had not often contacted it about online hate.
In Victoria, state police communicated with the eSafety commissioner on an “as needs basis”, which were generally crisis situations requiring the removal of a live stream, cybercrime detective Carl Keenan said.
The Australian Federal Police had only met with Inman Grant on three occasions in 2021, 2023 and 2026, the royal commission was told.
The royal commission will continue in Sydney, with public broadcasters SBS and the ABC scheduled to appear in the coming days.