{"id":46570,"date":"2026-07-08T11:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/46570\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T11:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:01:15","slug":"google-defends-youtube-decision-to-keep-false-sydney-massacre-video-online-firstpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/46570\/","title":{"rendered":"Google defends YouTube decision to keep false Sydney massacre video online \u2013 Firstpost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Google executive told an inquiry on Tuesday that a YouTube video that falsely claimed a wounded survivor of an antisemitic massacre in Sydney was a crisis actor blooded with makeup had met the platform\u2019s standards and would remain online.<\/p>\n<p>Google Australia manager Rachel Lord was testifying at a government inquiry into the spread of antisemitism in Australia including an attack by two gunmen on a Sydney Hanukkah celebration in December that left 15 dead.<\/p>\n<p>STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD<\/p>\n<p>Lord was questioned about a complaint made by survivor Arsen Ostrovsky about a video posted on YouTube. Ostrovsky was attacked online after an image showing blood streaming from a wound in his head was posted on X two hours after he was shot.<\/p>\n<p>Lord said the decision to allow the video to remain on YouTube had been reviewed at \u201cquite senior levels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have spent a lot of time thinking about where we draw the line and we continue to re-evaluate where we are doing that,\u201d Lord said.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Lancaster, the lawyer leading the inquiry\u2019s evidence, referred to a transcript of the video to avoid showing the images in public.<\/p>\n<p>Four men appear on split screen saying Ostrovsky\u2019s bleeding head appeared \u201cvery crisis actor-ish\u201d and mentioned \u201cmakeup.\u201d They also describe him as an \u201cintelligence asset\u201d who had a \u201cdegree in theater.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The video also describes Ostrovsky as a Zionist and claims the massacre was a \u201cfalse flag operation.\u201d Police allege father and son shooters Sajid and Naveed Akram were inspired by the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n<p>Lancaster told Lord the video remaining online demonstrated a \u201creally serious deficiency\u201d in YouTube\u2019s hate speech guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>Lord replied that she appreciated Lancaster\u2019s \u201cfeedback.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD<\/p>\n<p>YouTube told Australia\u2019s online safety regulator three days after the massacre that the platform was \u201cfocused on ensuring Australians and all users around the world have access to high quality information about the tragic events,\u201d Lord said.<\/p>\n<p>Ostrovsky told the inquiry last month that he had been targeted by online hate, abuse, vilification and AI manipulation since he suffered the minor head wound on Dec. 14.<\/p>\n<p>The inquiry was then shown an AI-generated image of Ostrovsky apparently laughing as someone applied fake blood to his head.<\/p>\n<p>(Except for the headline this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Google executive told an inquiry on Tuesday that a YouTube video that falsely claimed a wounded survivor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[34801,34804,32600,34797,34803,155,34650,1957,34800,10468,34649,247,34802,34798,27752,34799],"class_list":["post-46570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-ai-generated-image","tag-antisemitism-australia","tag-arsen-ostrovsky","tag-australia-antisemitism-inquiry","tag-false-flag-claims","tag-google","tag-google-australia","tag-hate-speech","tag-misinformation","tag-online-abuse","tag-rachel-lord","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-hanukkah-attack","tag-sydney-massacre","tag-youtube","tag-youtube-content-moderation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}