The grief has barely taken hold, yet one of the worst terror attacks in Australian history is already being hijacked and exploited through social media misinformation and disinformation.
At least 16 people are dead and dozens more injured after two gunmen fired upon an event celebrating the first day of Hanukkah on December 14, 2025.
Authorities have declared it a terrorist attack.
Several posts have falsely linked Israel to the attack, pointing to internet searches, the identity of one of the shooters and the guns used as supposed evidence.
The claims are false. The supporting evidence is not credible.
Some Facebook posts claim users in Israel were searching the name of one shooter identified in media reports, “Naveed Akram”, on Google hours or even days before the attack.
The posts feature purported screenshots of time-series search activity for his name from the Google Trends website.
“My question is this? Why were people in Tel Aviv searching for Naveed Akram later identified as the alleged Bondi Beach sho–oter on December 7 and 9, days before the tragic event?” the overlay text on one post reads.
Another Facebook post with alleged screenshots of Google Trends results for Israel and India reads: “Coincidence or False Flag???”
A “false flag” is an action designed to appear to have been perpetrated by someone other than the person or group responsible for it.
However, the claims are false as there is no credible evidence that people in Israel or India searched Google...
An appellate court has shut the door on reviewing the constitutionality of the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA), although two other appellate courts are reviewing this issue, with ...