As misinformation tore through social media in the aftermath of the Bondi Beach massacre, some members of the Pakistani community bore the consequences.
Naveed Akram, a Pakistani migrant living in NSW, shares a name with one of the men accused of carrying out the terrorist attack.
He feared for his life after he was wrongly identified online as one of the shooters on Sunday evening.
But the damage didn't stop there.
Zeeshan Iqbal, a Sydney resident of Pakistani background, said his son was questioned by classmates at school about Pakistani involvement in Sunday's violence, which left 15 people dead.
"He was made uncomfortable and effectively singled out for something that was completely untrue," Iqbal told SBS Urdu.
The harm brought by false information doesn't just stay on social media, he observed.
"It shows up in people's lives, in classrooms, in offices. It affects my children."
'We become targets'
It's become commonplace for false and misleading claims to circulate during and after natural disasters, violent attacks and other major incidents.
"These rumours, they are filling up the gap of verified information," Iqbal said. "And minority communities in Australia, especially, we become targets.
"By the time the truth is clarified, harm is already done."
The alleged attacker Naveed Akram was born in Australia. His father Sajid Akram, the second alleged gunman who was fatally shot by police, was an Indian citizen.
Incorrect claims about the younger Akram's background proliferated across platforms such as Facebook and X in the hours after the attack.
In some cases, it has remained online.
SBS News has seen multiple X posts, still online at the time of publishing, that falsely identify one of the alleged attackers as a Pakistani. The posts now have hundreds of reshares and hundreds of thousands of impressions or views.
Several YouTube videos with tens of thousands of views — which contain the same false claims — also remain online.
"This is, I think, a broader issue now," Iqbal said. "And governments and media organisations and big social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, they should do something about it, otherwise, it's just going to be a bombshell in the future."
The federal government sought to introduce laws in late 2024 that would have seen social media companies fined up to 5 per cent of their annual turnover for spreading misinformation and disinformation.
Facing opposition from both the Coalition and Greens in the Senate, the government abandoned the proposed legislation.
'Within the first hour, people started blaming'
Iqbal wasn't the only local of Pakistani heritage to experience fear or vilification after misinformation about the Bondi attacker spread online.
"That information, it led [to] a lot of discomfort to me," Talha Rehmani, a man of Pakistani background living in Australia, told SBS Urdu.
"Just because the names are similar, [people were] saying that he's from Pakistan and everyone was thinking [the alleged attackers] are from Pakistan," he said.
"Within the first hour, people started blaming."
"Even one of my friends ... his last name is Akram, and he does ride share [driving] sometimes, but people come and ask, and he has to tell them he's not that Akram."
Rehmani said that — knowing his friends, colleagues and classmates may have been looking at social media after the attacks occurred — he was "really impacted" by the misinformation
"It can cause problems for us, especially for the Pakistani people ... We may have to face the consequences of this false information."
Pakistan's information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said this week his country had been targeted by a disinformation campaign, as he condemned the spread of false claims about the gunman's nationality.
It comes as Australian multicultural community leaders — including those from both Muslim and Jewish groups — call for unity and warn against placing collective blame over the shootings.
The attack, which targeted a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, was allegedly motivated by the ideology of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group.
The events at Bondi have spurred concerns about social cohesion while also triggering an outpouring of support and acts of kindness from myriad people of diverse backgrounds.
'It can ruin someone's life'
Akram, a business owner who arrived in Australia in 2018, asked for help on social media on Sunday night, saying his images had been wrongly associated with the alleged gunman.
"I'm very stressed and scared about this, and I cannot even go outside safely," he said at the time.
He told SBS Urdu the experience was "shocking", saying he was alerted by a friend that his image was being shared on social media.
He went to the police to ask for help, but they did little to assist, he said.
"It's quite a trauma for me," he said of the entire ordeal. "So I'm just worried about everything."
"People should show more responsibility ... It can ruin someone's life."
Members of the Pakistani community in Australia have issued condolences to the victims of Sunday's violence.
Azam Mohammad, the former Pakistani consul-general in Sydney, strongly condemned the "evil" attack and called for its perpetrators to be brought to justice.
"It is a most distressing and horrifying news. May all the deceased rest in peace and our condolences to their friends and family," he told SBS Urdu.
This story was produced in collaboration with SBS Urdu.
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