A New York Times reporter downloaded and shared the personal information of more than 600 members of Australia’s Jewish community, which anti-Israel activists then used in a campaign of threats and harassment.
The Melbourne-based journalist, Natasha Frost, has since apologized for the leak from a private WhatsApp chat group for Jewish creative workers launched in response to the Hamas-led massacre of some 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Frost acknowledged to The Wall Street Journal that she shared the information with one person, while not naming that individual. She gained accessed to the group in November, weeks after the Hamas-led attack.
The leak led to the mass doxxing by anti-Israel activists of members in the group in February.
The publishing of their personal information led to online and in-person harassment that increased to the point where some of them were forced to leave their homes.
According to the New York Post, in December several members of the WhatsApp group began discussing possible action against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for its part-time hiring of journalist Antoinette Lattouf, an Australian native of Lebanese descent who has accused Israel of committing war crimes
ABC terminated Lattouf midway through her five-day contract, prompting her to file a complaint alleging racial discrimination. A Times story co-authored by Frost about the firing was published on Jan. 23. Frost left the WhatsApp group days before the story was published.
Soon, the personal information of the group’s members began circulating online, including a spreadsheet with names, photographs, job titles and quotes.
Joshua Moshe, a member of the group, said he and his wife received threatening calls and emails calling them baby killers and genocidal maniacs, according to the Post report. A text message was also sent with a picture of their 5-year-old son. Moshe’s gift shop in Melbourne was vandalized with graffiti and stickers with the Israeli flag crossed out and urging customers to boycott the store.
Moshe had to close the shop and leave the neighborhood with his family.
The incident prompted Mark Dreyfus, Australia’s attorney general, to propose a law to criminalize doxxing.
“The increasing use of online platforms to harm people through practices like doxxing, the malicious release of their personal information without their permission, is a deeply disturbing development,” Dreyfus, who is Jewish, told reporters.
“The recent targeting of members of the Australian Jewish community through those practices like doxxing was shocking but, sadly, this is far from being an isolated incident,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Times told the Journal that it had taken action against Frost.
“It has been brought to our attention that a New York Times reporter inappropriately shared information with the subject of a story to assist the individual in a private matter, a clear violation of our ethics,” the spokesperson said. “This was done without the knowledge or approval of the Times.”
Frost told the Journal that the publishing of the personal information was done without her “knowledge or consent” and that she was “shocked” by the subsequent events.
She added: “I deeply regret my decision and I have no plans to comment further.”
