As harmful misinformation circulates, a stabbed bishop delivers the first word from the hospital.

 

When Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel last spoke to his congregation, he was reading an Assyrian bible aloud in front of a church. His speech was abruptly interrupted by the shadowy figure of a suspected knife-wielding attacker.

Following a tumultuous week for Sydney, the wounded bishop spoke to his supporters for the first time on Thursday in an audio message uploaded to the Christ The Good Shepherd Church Facebook page. This is the same account that unintentionally broadcast the attack three days prior.

"Go out and fight in the street; the Lord Jesus never said to retaliate, but to pray," Emmanuel reportedly stated, seemingly alluding to the disturbance that broke out outside the church in the city's western suburbs as soon as video of the attack went viral on the internet.

The incident on Monday night happened only a few days after a separate knife assault at a Sydney mall that left six people dead and their assailant, who was shot by police, critically wounded.

Videos of both attacks went viral on the internet, sparking wild conjecture about the attackers' identities, religions, and motivations. This presented a problem for Australian police.

Days later, officials, religious organizations, and the bishop are still working to defuse tensions in the community because of the quick transmission of false information that exacerbated an already explosive situation.

State Premier of New South Wales (NSW), Chris Minns, stated on Thursday that "malicious information about damage to mosques and churches was spreading like wildfire and inflaming tensions in the community" in numerous instances.

"I remain concerned about the availability of graphic and violent imagery on prominent websites that are in the public domain, even 48 hours after the incident."

Attacker misidentified

Major social media platforms Meta and X were given a 24-hour deadline by Australia's eSafety Commissioner on Tuesday to remove the graphic videos.

The commissioner's office said in a statement on Thursday that while Meta, the company that owns Facebook, had cooperated to their satisfaction, investigations were still ongoing to see whether “further regulatory action”—fines, perhaps—was necessary against X.

Regulators are, however, having a considerably tougher time taking action against social media companies for the misinformation that went viral following the attacks, particularly in the wake of the large-scale stabbing in the Bondi area in the east.

Posts on social media misidentifying the attacker gained traction while police spent the entire night on Saturday collecting evidence at the upscale mall where the crime occurred.

Disinformation researcher Marc Owen Jones outlined the sequence of events in a discussion on X, including posts that variously described the attacker as Muslim or Jewish—he was neither.

A pro-Russian influencer assisted in disseminating "unconfirmed" information about the attacker's name that implied he was Jewish for a number of hours on Saturday night. Seven, a well-known Australian TV news network, picked up on the claims and spread them, and is now allegedly facing a defamation lawsuit. Seven attributed the stumble on "human error."

Some posts made misleading suggestions Bondi's substantial Jewish population is the reason it was targeted.

When NSW Police revealed that the attacker was a 40-year-old mentally ill man from the nearby state of Queensland who had apparently stopped taking his medicine, both false ideas came to an end.

The storyline that "the attacker is either a Muslim or a Jew" only serves to further polarize people and is a reflection of how the Gaza war has been politicized along pro-West versus pro-Russian lines. However, Jones, an associate professor at Qatar's Hamad Bin Khalifa University, pointed out, "I guess that's the point."

Following the church attack, unsubstantiated rumors also abounded regarding the supposed attacker's religion and motivation.

Laws intended to safeguard juvenile offenders prohibit the public revelation of the suspect's identification because he is a minor.

The suspect was charged on Thursday under Australia's anti-terrorism laws. The bishop forgave the suspect in his audio message, which was made public to reassure his fans that he is "doing fine."

The bishop said, "I also forgive whoever sent you to do this."

According to police, the adolescent took ninety minutes to go from his house to the church, where he allegedly stabbed the bishop up to six times. The maximum punishment for the terror offense is life in prison.

System of self-regulation

Media outlets in Australia currently use a voluntary code created by the non-profit industry association Digital Industry Group Inc., or DIGI, to self-regulate misinformation and disinformation.

X was removed as a signatory and is no longer bound by the code due to his numerous violations.

The website that was once known as Twitter has removed some of the safeguards put in place to prevent false and misleading content since Elon Musk acquired the company.

Because of this, it is now headed for conflict with regulators around the globe. Just last year, Australian authorities chastised it for deleting a feature that would have let users flag questionable content during a national referendum.

The government is determined to pass stricter laws this year against misinformation and deception, according to a statement made by Michelle Rowland, the minister of communications, on Thursday on ABC Radio.

This would include a percentage of turnover in addition to continuous fines of up to $3 million Australian dollars ($1.9 million) for each infraction.

We are aware that some of these internet platforms make more money than some countries. Therefore, a significant and meaningful penalty mechanism must be implemented, according to Rowland.

An open-source technology dubbed the "world-first" would be launched by Australian academics the following week to track rules across the globe.

The International Digital Policy Observatory, according to Terry Flew, professor of Digital Communication and Culture at the University of Sydney, will help nations in an area where regulation is still in its infancy to learn from one another's experiences.

The project manager, Flew, stated that "most governments are unfamiliar with this territory." It is crucial to have a resource that allows Australia's pertinent authorities to gain knowledge from events occurring in the US, UK, or EU.

It is obvious, he continued, that a voluntary code is insufficient.

"It has become evident that there aren't many options available to platforms that don't want to abide by that code," the speaker stated.

NSW Police sent out a letter late on Thursday asking people to refrain from spreading unfounded rumors. The notification stated, "Misinformation continues to spread disharmony among the community."

Further details have been added to this story.