Shock Sydney stabbing scenes were made worse
Sydney was tested more in 72 hours this week than in recent memory. You would be hard pressed to find a single person who has not been affected by the twin horrors of the Bondi Junction knife rampage and the Wakeley stabbing attack that sparked an all-out riot.
The graphic violence beamed into our eyeballs by social media – unfiltered and unchecked – made a bad situation worse.
While the two stabbing attacks that rocked Sydney this week may be linked only by proximity, social media is a common thread between both. Tech giants should be held to account for their role in the wake of this week’s violence.
On Saturday, graphic footage of Joel Cauchi’s stabbing rampage at Bondi Junction proliferated on Facebook and X.
While videos from witnesses of the scene revealed the heroics of bystanders (like “Bollard Man” Damien Guerot and his French compatriot Silas Despreaux), unfiltered and uncensored violence is not something that anyone, let alone kids, should be seeing when they log into Facebook on a Saturday evening.
Conspiracy loves a vacuum, and misinformation about the attacker spread unfettered before investigators were even on the scene.
In the evening, despite police saying authorities did not know the identity of the attacker, anonymous trolls on X were the first to falsely name university student Benjamin Cohen as the man responsible.
Later, fuelled by a pro-Putin influencer, Cohen’s name went viral. It did not take long for the online misinformation to spill into the real world: on Sunday, Channel 7’s Sunrise wrongly named Cohen.
Cohen is seeking damages. Channel 7 (which a spokesman said “sincerely apologises”) will surely be getting its chequebook ready.
Then, on Monday, footage of an attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel spread like wildfire on platforms and in WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram group chats.
Violent video of the stabbing whipped up a frenzy among local community groups, with hundreds then gathering outside Christ the Good Shepherd Church demanding retaliation.
It would be wrong to blame the pandemonium just on social media; but hate that spread online and in group chats did nothing to calm the tensions.
Kids, too, saw the footage. I was told of one parent whose 11-year-old opened their phone to see the uncensored stabbing shared in a chat. The young child was distraught.
Social media has the power to enrich our lives. But this week it did the opposite.
And if you want to know what the tech giants that own these platforms think of their role in the social compact, just look at their response.
The online safety watchdog on Wednesday had to order X and Facebook to take down the vision of Bishop Emmanuel being attacked under the threat of legal action. Meta took steps to comply; by Wednesday night, X Corp had not.
The issue is weighing heavily on the mind of Premier Chris Minns, who says these companies “need to be held to account”.
“It is still a major concern for NSW Police and the government to have so much unsubstantiated rumour as well as graphic content still available on public websites and social media platforms,” he said.
“It proves very difficult to foster community cohesion and harmony (and) to calm down the community … when social media firms still continue to disseminate terrible pieces of information, untruths, rumours that circulate like wildfire through an anxious community.”
He’s concerned, too, about the footage shared online in the wake of the mass stabbing murder in Bondi.
“It’s completely inappropriate, particularly for young people, and nobody – no parent – wants young people exposed to that kind of graphic footage,” Minns said.
“Social media firms have a ... moral licence to take down divisive information and graphic content as soon as it becomes available.” The anguish of victims’ families and an alleged stabbing attack should not be content for social media giants to exploit in a business model that monetises attention and outrage.
Separate warnings from online safety experts that extremist content on these platforms risks radicalising primary school children makes the situation even more galling.
Algorithms are fine when their laser-like focus delivers users a tailored stream of cute puppies.
But if someone’s viewing habits stray into violent, extremist, or addictive behaviours, they are just spoonfed more and more.
There may not be a simple fix. But in the wake of such a torrid week, perhaps everyone should just take time to log off and “touch some grass,” as the kids say online.
Because, in time, that grass will surely grow greener.