{"id":516172,"date":"2026-06-29T06:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/516172\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T06:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:24:14","slug":"covered-in-ketchup-sydney-terror-attack-survivor-targeted-by-antisemitic-deepfakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/516172\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Covered in ketchup\u2019: Sydney terror attack survivor targeted by antisemitic deepfakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deepfake and manipulated images of a survivor of the Bondi Beach terror attack<\/a>, showing him holding an Oscar while covered in blood, spread \u201clike wildfire\u201d online within hours of the shooting, Arsen Ostrovsky told Australia\u2019s royal commission on antisemitism<\/a> and social cohesion on Monday.<\/p>\n

Ostrovsky, who was wounded in the deadly Hanukkah terror attack at Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach, appeared before the commission as it opened its third round of hearings, focused on the spread of hate speech on social media and in traditional media.<\/p>\n

Arsen Ostrovsky speaks after the terror attack<\/p>\n

(Video: NEWS 9)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The commission was established after 15 people were murdered in the Hanukkah terror attack.<\/p>\n

According to ABC Australia, Ostrovsky told the commission that an image of his injuries, posted on X about two hours after the shooting, triggered a wave of abusive comments and manipulated images.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were also messages of support and solidarity, but almost immediately there was a wave of hate, abuse, incitement and defamation, alongside manipulations created using artificial intelligence,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was surreal to be in the hospital and at the same time see all this material being circulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ostrovsky told the commission that social media users called him a \u201ctrauma tourist\u201d and a \u201cfalse flag attack actor,\u201d while others claimed the blood seen in his photo was not blood at all, but ketchup or paint.<\/p>\n

The commission was also shown an AI-generated image depicting Ostrovsky sitting on the ground and laughing while another person painted his face red.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this happened while I was literally being prepared to go into the operating room,\u201d he told the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\"\u05d0\u05e8\u05e1\u05df<\/a>\"\u05d0\u05e8\u05e1\u05df<\/p>\n

Arsen Ostrovsky <\/p>\n

(Photo: Sky News Australia screenshot)<\/p>\n

ABC Australia also reported that Ostrovsky told the commission some of the content remains online, including a YouTube video accusing him of being a \u201ccrisis actor\u201d and an \u201cintelligence agency asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ostrovsky, who has a large following on several social media platforms, said he tries to ignore the abuse but cannot fully escape it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try my best to ignore it… but it is impossible,\u201d he said. \u201cThis thing is trying to completely erase my experience and the trauma I went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described the abuse campaign against him as \u201crelentless\u201d and \u201ccruel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission also heard testimony from a Jewish mother who asked to remain anonymous. The 47-year-old Sydney woman said she too had faced difficulties trying to remove antisemitic content from social media.<\/p>\n

She said her daughter, then in seventh grade, experienced antisemitic abuse at school in June 2024. The harassment later moved online, when a TikTok account posted a video showing her daughter\u2019s image alongside the phrase \u201cg@s inhl3r.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the mother, symbols and substitute characters were used to write the slur \u201cgas inhaler\u201d in a way designed to evade the platform\u2019s automatic filtering and blocking mechanisms. She said her daughter was \u201cdevastated\u201d by the video.<\/p>\n

New South Wales police determined that the video had been posted from an account created by one of the Jewish girl\u2019s close friends.<\/p>\n

Several social media platforms were granted permission to appear before the royal commission, including Google, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

Addressing the commission on Monday, counsel assisting the inquiry Richard Lancaster said some platforms had cooperated more than others with requests for information.<\/p>\n

Lancaster said Gab Social had been \u201copenly hostile\u201d in its dealings with the commission. He said a representative of the platform described it as an \u201cAmerican company, run by Americans,\u201d that would \u201cpublish what it wants, when it wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not answer to Australian bureaucrats, and Gab does not answer to state censors,\u201d Gab founder and CEO Andrew Torba wrote in a statement posted on X in May, after he was ordered to hand over documents to the commission. \u201cThe Australian government has officially declared war on free speech and threatened me with 12 months in prison for exposing its plans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deepfake and manipulated images of a survivor of the Bondi Beach terror attack, showing him holding an Oscar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-516172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}