Man wrongly identified as Bondi Junction killer on social media asks police to consider prosecutions

Ben Cohen, who was wrongly identified as the Bondi Junction killer, has said social media platforms and users should be accountable for the content they host. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

The Sydney man who was wrongly named as the Bondi Junction killer has asked police to consider prosecuting the people who linked him to the attack on social media.

Ben Cohen, a university student, was named on social media and by Seven’s Weekend Sunrise program before police officially revealed 40-year-old Joel Cauchi’s identity on the Sunday morning after the attack.

Cohen has asked police to consider pursuing criminal charges for menacing, harassing and offensive conduct; criminal defamation and inciting violence on racial grounds.

The Sydney man reached a confidential settlement with the network last month and the managing director and CEO of Seven, Jeff Howard, said naming him on air “was a grave mistake and that these assertions were entirely false and without basis”.

“Seven withdraws the false allegations unreservedly and apologises to you for the harm you and your family have suffered as a result of Seven’s statements about you,” Howard said in a letter to Cohen released by his lawyers.

When he settled with Seven Cohen indicated social media platforms and users should also be accountable for the content they host.

The name “Benjamin Cohen” began to circulate online on the Saturday evening of the attack, spurred on by several verified accounts on X, some with more than 1.7 million followers and others that regularly share antisemitic commentary.

The name also spread on Telegram, where Australian far-right accounts eagerly seized on false allegations the perpetrator was first Muslim and then Jewish, as well as in the comment sections of videos about the incident on Instagram and TikTok.

Before Seven broadcast his name twice on its Sunday morning program, Cohen had been wrongly identified as the attacker on social media by users posting his photo and profile from his LinkedIn page.

“These persons maliciously posted the false accusation for their own improper purposes, in some cases simply to draw attention to themselves,” Cohen’s lawyer, Patrick George, alleged. “It spread like wildfire not just in Australia but throughout the world over the Saturday night.

“We have provided the Commissioner of Police with a comprehensive brief of evidence of this conduct particularly by users of the social media platform X. The conduct raises serious concerns for the welfare and safety of people in the community as a result of such malicious and irresponsible use of social media.”

Defamation expert Michael Douglas, a consultant at media law firm Bennett, said while criminal defamation charges were extremely rare the other charges might meet the threshold.

“What happened to Mr Cohen was terrible and might satisfy various criminal offences,” Douglas said. “For example, under section 414.17 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, it is an offence to use a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.

“To be a crime, the conduct in question needs to be considered by reasonable persons as menacing or harassing. To my mind, recklessly using the internet to set the dogs on someone with an allegation as serious as that levelled against Mr Cohen would meet the threshold.

“Doing so to gain internet clout or ‘engagement’ on social media makes the conduct even worse and worthy of the criminal law’s intervention.”

Police have also been asked to consider the hosting activity of X, and the steps it took to prevent or stop this conduct.

Cohen’s name was trending on X on the Sunday after the attack, with more than 70,000 posts linking the name to the incident.