Social media giant Meta will appear before the royal commission into antisemitism when public hearings investigate the role media has played in amplifying hate, with a focus on sites such as Facebook and X as well as the public broadcasters ABC and SBS.
The commission will resume public hearings on June 29, after a long stretch of in-camera evidence that looked at possible security failings that may have led to the December 14 Bondi massacre.
Meta has confirmed it will appear before the commission, while the ABC and SBS have provided statements. While the public broadcasters would not confirm whether they would appear, several sources with knowledge of the commission confirmed they would provide evidence.
An SBS spokesperson said: “SBS is engaging with the royal commission process, including with a written submission. SBS has received the National Archives of Australia’s disposal freeze notice and will continue to meet its legal and regulatory obligations.”
Earlier this year, it was revealed ABC and SBS staff had been ordered not to delete emails, photographs and documents relating to antisemitism, social cohesion and the Bondi terrorist attack ahead of hearings into the massacre, which killed 15 people, most of whom were Jewish.
The royal commission has said it was keen to receive submissions from journalists as part of its investigations into mainstream media.
It began with two weeks of personal testimonies on lived experiences of antisemitism before shifting to security, where it emerged that NSW Police quietly dismantled a taskforce set up to combat antisemitism, share intelligence and patrol high-risk Jewish events in the lead-up to the Bondi Beach terror attack.
In the first round of hearings, a Jewish academic who lodged complaints with Facebook over posts glorifying Hitler and likening the Jews to rats, told the commission that Meta had failed to act after it said the content did not “violate community standards”.
Israeli-born Tali Pinsky, who moved to Australia last year for an academic posting, told the commission in May she did not believe social media was “necessarily the main driver of antisemitism, but it’s certainly a great amplifier”.
A spokesperson for Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – confirmed the social media giant had prepared a submission for the commission and would appear.
A new report by the Tackling Hate Lab – a multi-institution Australian research hub dedicated to understanding and addressing online and offline hostility – found a “shocking proliferation” of antisemitic and Islamophobic online hate after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
The report’s principal investigator Dr Andrea Giovannetti, from the Australian Catholic University, said, “previously a sparse and somewhat peripheral hate ecosystem in Australia” exploded after October 7. The same happened again after last year’s Hanukkah massacre.
Using a super dataset of 1.5 million interactions on X and about 57,000 Tumblr posts generated by more than 50,000 accounts from 2022 to 2025, the research team tracked the “transformative effect” of the October 7 attacks on the Australian online community.
“Unfortunately, not only did the ecosystem grow 5.4 times in terms of users participating in it, when we disaggregated influence flows across communities, we found that its structure became much more sophisticated,” Giovannetti said.
“What was once a relatively small number of prolific commentators expanded into something more complex and articulated.”
Giovannetti said “tracking raising [online] stars may be useful to pre-empt and de-escalate future hate”.
In the 48 hours following the Bondi terror attack, online hate also increased significantly on major platforms. Researchers analysed over 145,000 posts to track patterns of anti-Muslim sentiment, antisemitic content and conspiracy theories.
The Tackling Hate Lab, which has provided a submission to the royal commission, found one in five posts on X included anti-Muslim hate, while “new forms” of antisemitism also rose sharply, particularly content that blamed Jewish Australians for the actions of the Israeli state.
While social media is likely to feature heavily in the media-focused hearing block, the ABC and SBS will also come under sharp focus, according to two sources working closely with the commission.
The public broadcasters have declined to adopt the contested definition of antisemitism endorsed by the federal government and the royal commission, arguing it could be used to stifle legitimate debate.
Both emphasised their concern about antisemitism but said it was important for their editorial independence to use their own definitions. The move is an express rejection of the definition demanded by special envoy to combat antisemitism Jillian Segal.
In her 2025 landmark plan to combat antisemitism, Segal recommended she become monitor of media organisations to encourage “accurate, fair and responsible reporting” to ensure impartiality and balance and to avoid “accepting false or distorted narratives”.
She also called for funding to be stripped from broadcasters, universities and arts institutions that fail to fight antisemitism.
Alexandra Smith is a senior writer and former state political editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
