” I always falsely suggested something,” Simeon Boikov tells me.
He posted unfounded rumors that a 20-year-old Hebrew university student was the one who fatally stabbed and killed five people and one man in Sydney under the alter self” Aussie Cossack.”
On X, he stated,” Unverified reports identify the Bondi perpetrator as Benjamin Cohen. Cohen? Actually? And to believe that so many observers first tried to blame Muslims. “
The false allegations that Mr. Boikov amplified had already been made by hundreds of thousands of people on X and Telegram within days of his posting on X, and one federal news outlet also repeated them.
Because I want to know how his articles sparked a media frenzy, with serious consequences for Mr. Cohen, who has described his agony over being accused of an attack he had nothing to do, I tracked him down.
Mr. Boikov is speaking to me from the Australian consul where he fled more than a year earlier after an arrest warrant was issued for an alleged abuse. Vladimir Putin, a pro-Kremlin social internet character, was granted Russian membership last year and has since requested political asylum in Russia.
The brand Benjamin Cohen was not mentioned by him as the first time. It appeared to have come from a small account that shared almost entirely anti-Israel information.
One of the current methods for spreading propaganda is this.
According to Marc Owen-Jones, a specialist in online disinformation, “it’s less obvious and dubious than if a well-known and influential partisan account was to tweet it first.”
” Then more organized accounts can apply this’seeded’ tale as if it’s a legitimate audio music, and claim they are just’reporting’ what’s being said online. “
Another more extensive records suggested that the attack had some connection to Israel or Gaza before Aussie Cossack’s comments on X.
However, those were the first to go viral with Mr. Cohen’s brand.
That’s because he purchased a blue tick, which placed his content before other users and appeared higher up people’s feeds, even those who did n’t follow him.
The first article racked up more than 400,000 views, according to X’s personal data- before authorities identified the attacker as Cauchi, no Benjamin Cohen. Following that, Aussie Cossack posted a similar picture to the one that shows the real perpetrator, Cauchi, standing next to a picture of Mr. Cohen in a subsequent post on X.
On Telegram, he even posted a screengrab of Mr Cohen’s LinkedIn site, revealing where he worked and studied.
However, Mr. Boikov, who spoke to me, emphasizes the skepticism in his tweet, saying that he was the” first large platform to inform this is unconfirmed.”
He suggests that” the hundreds of thousands of people who saw my content” pointed out the unverified nature of the state.
However, many people ‘ website responses to his posts appear to have viewed it in a different way and assumed Mr. Cohen was the source of the attack.
I questioned Mr. Boikov about how his posts had allegedly fabricated hundreds of thousands of lies, seriously harming the pupil at its heart. This occurred as people were grieving for loved people who were killed in the attack, and still are.
” Sorry, love, you’re doing that right now,” he said. You’re talking about the speculating of a phony state, and you’re writing a piece about it. “
Communicate in profit
Whether or not it is true that Mr. Boikov’s is one of the hundreds of very effective X accounts that now routinely share content in this manner.
Users can acquire a” share of the revenue” generated by advertising from their posts under X’s new rules, since Elon Musk purchased the social media business.
Aussie Cossack’s messages were taken up and recirculated by dozens of other records, some of whom had a history of spreading false information. Some people frequently post articles that disparage Israel or discuss the Gaza War.
Immediately, these false charges spread to various social media platforms.
When I was looking through the articles related to the murdering on Saturday night, TikTok suggested that I hunt for” Benjamin Cohen” on several films of the attack.
When I looked through the remarks, I discovered they were rife with his name before the authorities had established the attacker’s true personality.
” The suspect’s title is Benjamin Cohen IDF Soldier,” one user wrote. Their consideration had no articles, and no report picture. I sent a text. No answer.
” Shame he’s a Jew right? Why do n’t the media outlets label him? Another user posted a picture of persons running through the mall. When I messaged this one to inquire about its responses, it blocked me.
Repeated by media network
Where these accounts are based ca n’t be definitively confirmed. They consistently post controversial remarks and lack any identifying features that resemble authentic profiles.
The BBC has yet to respond to the BBC’s requests for comment. X, Telegram, and TikTok have not yet responded.
Worryingly, the debate was picked up by American media shop 7News, which named Benjamin Cohen as the “40-year-old lone wolf intruder”. The negative aspects of their document added to the fire online.
7News after retracted the statement and apologised, attributing it to “human problem”.
However, by this point, racist threats were being made toward Benjamin Cohen, who had described the incident as being “highly disconcerting and unsatisfactory to myself and my household.” He has expressed surprise that perhaps a major media outlet had identified him despite being constantly falsely accused on social advertising.
His father Mark Cohen defended his brother on X while the social media panic was taking place. He requested New South Wales Police to reveal the identity of the intruder, saying that “providing false information that it was my brother would cause more harm.”
In parallel, misleading statements were circulating that the intruder was Muslim. These were shared by well-known political figures and reporters on X with hundreds of thousands of supporters from the UK to the US.
The murder were “another terror assault by another Islamist terrorist,” according to American journalist and broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer, and TV presenter Rachel Riley referred to them as” a Global Intifada.” Eventually, they both retracted their content.
Hartley-Brewer posted that she had been “incorrect” and that the Sydney massacre “was not an Islamist terror attack”, while Riley said she was” sorry” if her message had been “misunderstood”.
Additionally, numerous Twitter accounts make false claims about the attacker’s religion. I messaged several of them- but they have n’t responded.
Numerous online forums dedicated to the incels, a culture that defines themselves as incapable of getting a physical partner despite desire, have praised Cauchi as one of their own for the assault.
There is currently, however, no concrete proof that Cauchi is directly involved in these virtual activities. When questioned about Cauchi’s potential use of force against women, his father responded that his brother had “wanted a girl” and that he had” no social skills and was frustrated out of his mind.”
This kind of societal media frenzy, where misinformation is incredibly prevalent, is growing in frequency as problems in the real world occur.
This dangerous rumor mill is seriously harming the people, companions, and innocent bystanders who have been killed.