The doxxing of 600 Jews

The Zio600 – The modern list of Jews

In order to understand human behaviour, it’s important that we examine history, in an attempt to predict, and if necessary halt, the progression of repeating past evils. If you think the Holocaust was allowed to happen because of a few evil Nazis, you would be wrong. The Holocaust was caused by many factors, including millions of individual decisions made by ordinary people who chose to actively participate in—or at least tolerate—the persecution and murder of their neighbours.

The Holocaust was not a single event. It did not happen all at once. It was the result of circumstances and events, as well as individual decisions, played out over years.

An incremental propaganda war of dehumanisation waged against the Jews between 1933 and 1945, where rights were slowly taken away over time, lists were created, ghettos were populated, businesses were destroyed and by the end of WWII when the Allies defeated Nazi Germany in 1945, the Nazis and their collaborators had murdered approximately six million Jews. 

Many people have since wondered, “how did good people allow this to happen?” In 2024 we are watching in real-time the insidious virus like spread of antisemitism weave its ugliness through lies, the rewriting of history, misinformation and twisted narratives. We no longer have to ask how. We are watching it happen.

Earlier this year New York Times reporter Natasha Frost, who is based in Melbourne, was a member of a private Whatsapp group. The group comprised of Jewish writers, artists, musicians, and academics that banded together after the horrific events of October 7 and the subsequent rise in antisemitic attacks. Sensing there was a story here, Frost removed herself from the Whatsapp group stating that due to her involvement with Antoinette Lattouf who she was about to interview for a story—but not before she downloaded a nearly 900-page transcript that included around 600 members’ contact details, photographs and social media accounts.

But here is where it becomes messy. Frost then passed on the list of Jews to one ‘unknown person’, who then leaked the transcript, cutely coined the ‘ZIO600’ list to know Pro Palestine online influencers. On the 8th of February this year Clementine Ford, Matt Chun, Randa Abdel Fattah, Elsa Tuet Rosenberg and Zee Mazloum created a collaborative post on social media which provided a link to the full Whatsapp chat transcript as well as photos and personal details of many of the members.

Clementine Ford and others posted a link to the full transcript of 600 Jewish people in Australia

The doxxing of the list lead to harassment of Jewish members of the group, death threats – including a child – Jewish businesses closing, and some members moving suburbs.

As a result Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pushed for legislation to be brought forward as part of a broader reform of privacy laws. Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the proposed laws, which have yet to be drafted, would involve issuing take-down notices to social media platforms and imposing fines for the intimidation tactic. As yet, this has not come to pass.

Federal government to criminalise 'doxxing' behaviour

Despite reaching the highest levels of Australian politics, the doxxing saga, to date, as far as those affected are concerned, has seen no police investigation into what appeared to be a malicious and co-ordinated campaign to attack members of Australia’s Jewish community.

Let me reiterate, this was a private Whatsapp group. Although beside the point, ironically this group of 600 Jews would be considered left-leaning, socially conscious creatives by most, many critical of the Netanyahu’s government and most, if not all, supportive of a two-state solution.

If you have every wondered how things reached the levels that they did by 1945 in Germany, publicly doxxing lists of Jews and calling for the boycotting of them, their businesses and livelihoods to hundreds of thousand of followers, is a fairly solid stepping stone.

Note: The author would like to thank Zara Cooper for her research and tireless work to create safe places for Jewish Australians.