(José Niño, Headline USA) In the wake of the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO Ted Deutch embarked on a high profile media tour that framed the atrocity as a mandate for global action against online speech.
The shooting which Australian authorities classified as a terrorist attack targeting a Jewish event left at least fifteen people dead and dozens injured according to reporting from Reuters. As details emerged, Deutch used the moment to argue that social media expression now poses a direct threat to public safety.
Chris Menahan of Information Liberation first highlighted the campaign in a post on X where he noted that Deutch moved rapidly after the attack to demand what he called bold action to suppress antisemitism online. Menahan wrote that Deutch used the Bondi Beach killings as evidence that digital speech leads directly to real world violence.
American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch embarked on a media tour in the wake of the Bondi Beach shooting to demand "bold action" to suppress "anti-Semitism" on social media. pic.twitter.com/IoX8QYDyMS
— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) December 16, 2025
During a series of interviews Deutch insisted that rhetoric tolerated online creates conditions for violence offline. “We have to speak out against the kind of language that puts Jews at risk. We have to adopt policies that recognize that fighting antisemitism needs to be a priority, and we have to do more to make sure that on social media, what would never be tolerated on Main Street isn’t tolerated online,” Deutch said in an interview with CNN.
Australian officials described the Bondi Beach attack as an Islamic State inspired act of terrorism aimed at a Hanukkah gathering of roughly one thousand people. Police killed one attacker at the scene and charged the second with multiple counts of murder according to Reuters. The scale and symbolism of the attack intensified global media attention and provided the backdrop for Deutch’s remarks.
Deutch repeatedly linked the shooting to online expression. “The kind of calls for violence that put Jews at risk and that lead to the kinds of atrocities like we just saw in Bondi Beach. That’s a horrible situation indeed,” he said. He urged audiences to accept a causal link between online discourse and physical attacks.
Since becoming AJC CEO after leaving Congress in 2022, Deutch has consistently pushed for stronger government involvement in policing speech particularly on digital platforms.
How many leaders of pro-Israel groups need to explicitly demand that social media be more policed before people understand this is their movement's main goal? Netnayhau said the same.
The TikTok ban was finally passed due to fear it was allowing too much anti-Israel content. https://t.co/kciLmXxZNX
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 16, 2025
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
