Chat group offered AFP clues on doxxer

Jewish creatives doxxed by pro-Palestine activists filed a complaint to AFP in April offering information to help identify ‘person X’, whom the group alleges is central to February’s mass doxxing.

A New York Times journalist downloaded and shared 900 pages of content from a Pro-Palestinian WhatsApp group.

Jewish creatives doxxed by pro-Palestine activists after a New York Times journalist downloaded and shared 900 pages of content from their WhatsApp group filed a complaint to Australian Federal Police in April offering information to help identify “person X”, whom the group alleges is central to February’s mass doxxing.

The incident led to threats and abuse, before a Wall Street Journal report in August revealed how Melbourne-based Times reporter Natasha Frost had exported the chat, sharing it with a “subject of a story” – person X – who is alleged to have “misused” the information before it ended up in the hands of activists.

It forced the Albanese government to introduce anti-doxxing legislation, which has not yet been passed in parliament and won’t be retroactive.

Pressure has increased on the AFP to fully investigate and uncover the leak’s chain of events, with claims it could constitute a harassment offence and the identity of person X could be identified.

In the complaint filed to the AFP in April, members of the 600-person chat group said they remained fearful for their safety and believed they had circumstantial evidence to aid any investigation.

The AFP does not comment on reports of crime and declined to do so to The Australian, but police sources have since corroborated that the force received the complaint and the case was with its intelligence arm.

“We believe we have evidence that shows the whole picture, which was a deliberate, co-ordinated collaboration by multiple parties to threaten, menace and harass Jewish members of the group,” the complaint, since obtained by The Australian, said.

The Australian is not suggesting the allegations in the complaint are true, only that they have been made.

This publication revealed in February how five activists, including blogger Clementine Ford, widely shared members’ names, details and photographs across social media.

The complaint alleged that given death threats to Jewish members of a different group the week prior, the leaking and sharing was intentional.

“(We believe) person X (who we have strong circumstantial evidence as the person to whom Ms Frost gave the transcript to), intended for the leaking and publication of our chat to result in the menacing and harassment of our members,” it said.

It urged the AFP to investigate, believing the conduct could constitute an offence of using a carriage service to menace or harass, and offered to share “extensive evidence” it had compiled.

The group now believes, given the admission from Frost and her masthead, their information as to the identity of person X is accurate, encouraging the AFP to investigate. “We believe it’s imperative the AFP conduct a thorough investigation into the leaking and circulation … and the resultant threats to our members,” the complaint said.

It said the harassment had “re-emerged” after February’s doxxing and members remained concerned for their safety.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry in February led calls for the eventual introduction of anti-doxxing legislation, and its co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said members “remained fearful for their safety”.

On Wednesday, former federal minister Mike Kelly, a co-convener of the Labor Friends of Israel, called for the AFP to uncover how the chat leaked, which was echoed by Mr Ryvchin.

Mr Ryvchin said the government’s anti-doxxing laws “couldn’t come soon enough … It is a matter of the highest gravity that warrants police investigation and the force of the law. This cannot be allowed to happen to anyone else and those responsible must face the consequences of their conduct.”