ECAJ statement calling for nation­wide anti-doxxing laws.

Since 1944, the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry has been the elected national rep­res­ent­at­ive body of the Jewish community, uniting and leading nearly two hundred diverse community groups through­out our country. In that time, we have endured difficult times and overcome many chal­lenges, but never have we seen a period where so many in our community are so fearful for their physical security and loss of live­li­hood.

In the last few days this has been caused by the pub­lic­a­tion of lists con­tain­ing the names, faces and other personal inform­a­tion of hundreds of indi­vidu­als, whose only common trait is that they are Jewish. This has been done with coordin­a­tion and with malice, in many cases resulting in har­ass­ment, death threats directed to named indi­vidu­als and their children, pro­fes­sion­al and financial loss, vandalism of premises, and extensive psy­cho­lo­gic­al harm.

The indi­vidu­als respons­ible for this are engaged in practices syn­onym­ous with the Nazi era. We cannot, as a free and demo­crat­ic society, permit the com­pil­a­tion of racial black­lists and the ensuing exclusion, vili­fic­a­tion and har­ass­ment to take place. The ECAJ is today calling for reform of the Criminal Code to make it unlawful to post private or identi­fy­ing inform­a­tion about an indi­vidu­al or group with the intent that the inform­a­tion be used to cause harm to the victim. This abhorrent practice is commonly known as “doxxing” and has no place in our society.

We also call on social media platforms to per­man­ently deac­tiv­ate the accounts of those found to have used their accounts for the purposes of doxxing. Social media is intended to connect indi­vidu­als and com­munit­ies and allow the rapid exchange of inform­a­tion. Where accounts are used to threaten the lives and live­li­hoods of others, the platforms have a duty to act.

We urge any members of our community who feel endangered by this doxxing attack to imme­di­ately contact us so that we may direct you to the appro­pri­ate legal, mental health support, or security services.

We express our sincere appre­ci­ation to the members of par­lia­ment, Labor, Liberal and Inde­pend­ent who have contacted us to offer their support and convey their outrage. We are prepared to work with you to ensure the pro­tec­tion of the victims and to end the impunity of the per­pet­rat­ors.