Racist and antisemitic false information spreads online following Bondi Beach terrorism attack

A deepfake image depicting one of the victims of the Bondi terrorist attack is among a slew of false information that has spread online following the tragedy.

ABC NEWS Verify has found multiple examples of social media users spreading false information about the attackers and victims — which are receiving millions of views.

Deepfake propaganda

Arsen Ostrovsky was injured in the attack on December 14.

Mr Ostrovsky photographed himself with blood on his face and shirt in an image that was published to a friend's X account just hours after the attack.

He could not have known when he took the striking image that it would be used to create antisemitic propaganda.

Late on Monday night, an article appeared on well-known Russian disinformation site Pravda, which claims to be a world news website.

The article contained an AI-generated image of Mr Ostrovsky having his face painted red alongside a screenshot of the inaccurate result of an AI detector, which claimed the image was "100 per cent human".

The article claimed Mr Ostrovsky was part of "Mossad propaganda".

The image was created by Google's artificial intelligence, which ABC NEWS Verify confirmed by testing it in the company's Synth ID detector tool, which checks for the company's invisible digital watermark.

Visual analysis of the image also reveals it is a fake.

The writing on the T-shirt in the image, for example, is unreadable, and does not match the original image.

The "film set" in the background of the deepfake image appears off, with tripod legs crisscrossing and seeming to hover just above the ground.

In a larger, non-cropped version of the image that appeared elsewhere on the internet, there are two cars in the background that appear to morph into each other.

Mr Ostrovsky also appeared on a Channel Nine live stream after having his head bandaged.

He is wearing shorts in the live stream, rather than the pants present in the deepfake, and the blood on his shirt also does not match.

In the hours since the attack, Mr Ostrovsky has posted a photo of himself in a hospital gown as he recovers.

"I saw these images as I was being prepped to go into surgery," Mr Ostrovsky later posted on X.

"And [I] will not dignify this sick campaign of lies and hate with a response."

A look at Pravda's domain history shows it is registered in Russia and has a history of spreading pro-Russian propaganda.

The invention of 'Edward Crabtree'

The world has shared the story of Ahmed Al Ahmed, the tobacconist who wrestled the long-barrelled gun from terrorist Sajid Akram's arms.

But early on, while Mr Ahmed was in hospital undergoing operations for gunshot wounds, claims began to circulate on social media attributing his heroism to a man called "Edward Crabtree".

Racist and Islamophobic posts on X, which were seen by hundreds of thousands of people, claimed Mr Ahmed was not Middle Eastern.

Some of the posts referencing Edward Crabtree screenshotted a "news" website called The Daily, which claimed the hospitalised hero was a 43-year-old "IT professional" and a "born and bred Sydneysider".

The details on the website do not align with reality.

In an interview with ABC News, Mr Ahmed's Syrian parents said their son arrived in Australia in 2006.

A look at The Daily's domain registration shows the website was created the day of the attack on December 14.

It also states it is registered in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Mr Ahmed has since met with NSW Premier Chris Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Google search trends

One conspiracy circulating on social media is that the name of one of the gunmen, Naveed Akram, was searched in Israel in the days before the attack.

Screenshots from Google's Search Trends website have been used online, with a spike in the trend line for a search of the gunman's name in Israel used as evidence of the false claim.

ABC NEWS Verify asked Google how its Trends site works, and a spokesperson said it may show statistical noise due to privacy protections and/or low sampling volume.

They said it means that for very uncommon terms, Trends data may appear to show some search interest even if there were no actual searches.

They said apparent spikes for low-interest search terms should not be interpreted as reflecting actual search activity.

ABC NEWS Verify tried to replicate the fake spike in Israel in the days before the attack.

The result only showed a spike from about the time the gunman's name was revealed by the ABC.

Tests in other countries such as Mongolia, Japan and Kenya did produce spikes, showing the unreliability of this method.