Pro-Kremlin troll posted false viral posts about who was behind Sydney attack

16 April 2024 , 12:04

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Simeon Boikov posted fake news on social media about who was the Sydney shopping centre attacker (Image: Facebook)

A pro-Kremlin troll who claimed a Jewish student was behind the horrific Sydney shopping centre attack denies he “falsely suggested anything”.

Joel Cauchi, from Queensland, Australia, was identified as the knifeman who killed six people at the Westfield shopping centre on Saturday before being shot dead by police. Authorities said that he suffered from mental health issues since he was a teenager. But even though it only took a few hours for the real culprit to be named, first-year computer science student Ben Cohen, 20, had to endure online abuse as his name started trending on social media after he was linked to the atrocity.

And one of the reasons why hundreds of thousands of users had seen him on social media was a post by Simeon Boikov on X who wrote: “Unconfirmed reports identify the Bondi attacker as Benjamin Cohen. Cohen? Really? And to think so many commentators tried to initially blame Muslims.” Mr Boikov is currently at the Russian consulate in Sydney where he sought refuge as he faces an arrest warrant for assault. He was given Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin and is seeking political asylum in Russia.

Ben Cohen was wrongly linked to the shopping centre stabbings (Facebook)

Joel Cauchi was identified as the man who carried out the attacks

But despite his tweet Mr Boikov denies spreading falsehoods, telling the BBC that he was the “first large platform to warn this is unconfirmed”, and he told this to the many who read his posts online. At the same time, though, many who read his post on X saw it as a claim that it was Mr Cohen behind the attack.

With “Benjamin Cohen” trending on social media there were many posts that stated it was him including one that said: “The attacker's name is Benjamin Cohen IDF Soldier.” And the speculation even led Australian media to pick up on it with 7News naming Mr Cohen as the “40-year-old lone wolf attacker”, although it later apologised and put it down to “human error”.

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Mr Boikov, who uses the name Aussie Cossack online, issued another post on X showing the likeness of Mr Cohen to the actual attacker with two photos side by side, and he posted a screengrab of his LinkedIn page which showed where he worked and studied. Meanwhile, a a digital disinformation expert has told of a trend for how fake news is spread with Mr Boikov not having been the first person to suggest that Mr Cohen was the attacker.

Cauchi stabbed six people to death at a Westfield shopping centre (australiacracker)

Marc Owen-Jones told the BBC that it is a deliberate method for smaller accounts to spread the information first. "It's less obvious and suspicious than if an influential and known partisan account was to initially tweet it. Then more established accounts can use this 'seeded' narrative as if it's a legitimate vox pop, and claim they are just 'reporting' what's being said online,” he said.

Mr Cohen has since spoken to News.com.au about the "very dangerous" accusations and how deluded sleuths can "destroy" a person's life with their unfounded theories. Ben's dad Mark said the family were left in a state of shock after the allegations emerged online. "I think they've just gone for the first face that kind of looks the same and matches their own motives or what they wanted the story to be," Mark said.

Even Ben's extended family found out about the rumours and were hounding Mark on the phone to find out if it was true. He explained: "Everyone's asking what's going on, people asking if it's true. Of course it's not true, he's not even a politically motivated person. He's just a normal kid who now has got to deal with this."

Tim Hanlon