- False claims by “Aussie Cossack” spread widely on X and Telegram
- Benjamin Cohen falsely accused as Sydney mall attacker; retraction issued
- Social media frenzy amplifies false information, targeting innocent individuals
“I have never made any false suggestions,” Simeon Boikov asserts.
He disseminated false rumours under the alias “Aussie Cossack” that a 20-year-old Jewish university student was responsible for the stabbing and death of one man and five women at a Sydney Westfield retail centre.
“Unconfirmed reports identify Benjamin Cohen as the Bondi attacker,” he stated on X. Cohen, please. Indeed, indeed! It is absurd that so many commentators at first attempted to assign responsibility to Muslims.
The assailant, who was fatally shot by police, was subsequently identified as Joel Cauchi, aged 40. According to authorities, his actions were almost certainly the result of a mental health condition.
The false claims that Mr. Boikov amplified had reached hundreds of thousands of people on X and Telegram within hours of his post, and a national news outlet had even replicated them.
To comprehend how his online posts incited widespread media hysteria, I pursued him down. The ensuing commotion had severe repercussions for Mr. Cohen, who has expressed his anguish at being falsely accused of an assault he did not participate in.
Mr Boikov is currently communicating with me from the Russian consulate in Sydney, a location he has been evacuating for over a year after the issuance of an arrest warrant for alleged assault. A year ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin bestowed Russian citizenship upon the pro-Kremlin social media user, who has since applied for political asylum in Russia.
The user mentioned the name Benjamin Cohen before him. Its source seemed to be a modest account that published content that was almost exclusively critical of Israel.
This is currently one method by which disinformation is disseminated.
Marc Owen-Jones, an authority on digital disinformation, states, “It is less obvious and suspicious than if it were initially tweeted by a well-known and influential partisan account.”
Established accounts may then employ this ‘seeded’ narrative as if it were a legitimate vox poll and assert that they are merely reporting online discourse.
Other prominent accounts had also speculated that the attack might have been linked to Israel or Gaza before the posts by Aussie Cossack on X.
However, those that featured Mr. Cohen’s name first became ubiquitous.
This is plausibly due to his acquisition of a blue mark, which granted his content a higher priority in the feeds of all users, including those who did not subscribe to him.
According to X’s data, the initial post received over 400,000 views before the identification of the assailant by police as Cauchi rather than Benjamin Cohen. Following this, Australian Cossack published another image on X that featured a silhouette of a video depicting the real assailant, Cauchi, alongside an image of Mr Cohen.
He also shared a screenshot of Mr. Cohen’s LinkedIn profile on Telegram, which disclosed his academic and professional backgrounds.
Mr Boikov, however, emphasises the scepticism expressed in his tweet when we speak; he claims to have been the “first major platform to warn that this is unconfirmed.”
He implies he informed “the hundreds of thousands of people who saw my posts” about the unverified nature of the assertion.
On the contrary, numerous online users’ responses to his posts indicate that they presumed Mr. Cohen was the assailant, which contradicts their initial impressions.
I contested Mr. Boikov’s assertions that his posts had disseminated erroneous information to hundreds of thousands of individuals, thereby inflicting severe injury upon the student at its core. This occurred as bereaved families continued to mourn the loss of family members in the tragedy.
He apologised, “Love, you’re doing that at the moment.” “You are currently composing a story about speculation surrounding a false claim, which is precisely what you are doing.
Ratio of revenue
Mr Boikov’s account is among the numerous highly active accounts on X that feature blue marks and are presently disseminating content in this manner, irrespective of its veracity.
The purchase of a blue tick grants users a “share of the revenue” generated by advertisements on their postings, by X’s new policies implemented since Elon Musk acquired the social media company.
Dozens of other accounts, including a number that has a history of disseminating fraudulent claims, grabbed and re-distributed Aussie Cossack’s content. Numerous users consistently disseminate material that is critical of Israel or pertains to the conflict in Gaza.
These unfounded allegations rapidly spread to additional social media platforms.
Several TikTok videos about the Saturday night assault were indexed by the search term “Benjamin Cohen” when I attempted to locate relevant content.
Upon perusing these segments, I observed that the comments were replete with references to him even before the police officially disclosed the assailant’s true identity.
One user wrote, “Benjamin Cohen IDF Soldier is the name of the attacker.” Their account lacked both a profile picture and any posts. I have communicated via message. There was no response.
“He must be ashamed to be a Jew, correct? “Why do the media organisations not label him?” An additional account commented on a video depicting individuals fleeing through the mall. It immediately barred me after I inquired about its comments via message.
Reiterated by the news network
It is difficult to determine where these accounts are located. These individuals exhibit the characteristics of fraudulent profiles, including the absence of any distinguishing attributes and the repetitive dissemination of contentious remarks.
The BBC has yet to receive responses from X, Telegram, and TikTok regarding their requests for comment.
Concerningly, the Australian news outlet 7News reported on the rumours, labelling Benjamin Cohen, age 40, the “lone wolf attacker.” The conflagration online was further fueled by screenshots of their report.
Subsequently, 7News issued a retraction and apology for the report, declaring “human error” as the cause.
However, antisemitic threats had already been directed at Benjamin Cohen at this juncture; he has since expressed his profound distress and disappointment, along with his family, regarding the incident. Not only has he been repeatedly falsely accused on social media, but a major news network has also identified him, to which he has expressed astonishment.
Amidst the commotion on social media, his father, Mark Cohen, provided a defence for his son on X. He demanded that the New South Wales Police disclose the identity of the assailant “before this nonsense claiming my son was involved causes further damage.”
Concurrently, rumours began to circulate that the assailant was Muslim, which was false. Prominent journalists and political accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers from the United Kingdom to the United States shared these.
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Presenter and British journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer referred to the stabbings as “another terror attack by another Islamist terrorist,” whereas Rachel Riley, a television host, described them as “part of a global intifada.” Both of them subsequently retracted their postings.
Hartley-Brewer amended her post to retract her error and assert that the Sydney atrocity did not qualify as an Islamist terrorist attack. Riley, on the other hand, expressed regret if her message had been misconstrued.
Additionally, dozens of TikTok accounts disseminated the falsehood that the assailant was Muslim. I have sent several of them messages, but they have yet to respond.
Police in New South Wales have speculated that the true assailant, Cauchi, targeted women on purpose, as they comprise five of the six victims.
Numerous online forums devoted to incels, a subculture characterised by the desire for a sexual companion but an inability to obtain one, have lauded Cauchi for the assault.
However, there is currently no substantiated evidence that Cauchi is explicitly associated with these online movements. When queried about Cauchi’s motivations for targeting women, his father responded that his son “wanted a girlfriend” and was “completely frustrated and lacked social skills.”
A growing number of real-world assaults are being accompanied by this type of social media frenzy, in which false information is amplified exponentially.
The detrimental impact of this noxious rumour mill extends to the innocent bystanders who are being falsely accused as well as the bereaved families and friends.
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