Royal Commission witnesses targeted

Witnesses who testified during Hearing Block One of the Royal Commission were subsequently subjected to a wave of online abuse, according to evidence presented to the inquiry by Dor Foundation CEO Tahli Blicblau on Tuesday.

Blicblau told the commission her foundation had monitored online responses to witnesses and compiled a report as evidence.

“To summarise, we found that witnesses who came to the Royal Commission during Hearing Block One to give evidence about their experience in antisemitism were subjected to more of it,” she said.

“They were targeted and abused online at volume and across social media platforms, and that was true both for witnesses who held positions within the Jewish community, and also witnesses who chose to give evidence under a pseudonym.”

The report documented 275 examples of antisemitic or abusive posts across seven platforms, drawn from a far larger dataset of “many hundreds more”.