The Jewish creatives’ WhatsApp leak was more whistleblowing than doxing. Here’s why

• Debate around doxing is raging in Australia after the leak of a WhatsApp chat group called “Jewish Australian creatives and academics”.
• While the group was formed as a supportive space, some of its conversations focused on challenging media critiques of Israel.

Personal information

• According to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, doxing is the “malicious release” of someone’s personal information without their consent.
• The first question here is one of personal information.
• Was any personal information actually leaked?
• Those who released the information say they scrubbed any details that could be used to track people down, such as phone numbers and email addresses.

Malicious intent

• This leads to the second question, which is one of intent.
• The government claims the leak was done with malicious intent, and this claim has been backed by the opposition and organisations such as the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
• Yet the malicious intent is also up for debate.
• But it is debatable whether the anti-facist campaign was malicious or not.
• This made the Charlottesville leak political, rather than personally malicious.

Simon Copland has signed a statement of solidarity with Palestine from academics in Australian universities.