NYT reporter leaks personal info of hundreds of Australian Jews

Natasha Frost handed over 900 pages of chats in a post-October 7 support group that led to severe doxxing and personal threats against many members.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The New York Times has reprimanded one of its Australian reporters after she leaked information that has led to the doxxing of some 600 local Jews over the last several months.

“It has been brought to our attention that a New York Times reporter inappropriately shared information with the subject of a story to assist the individual in a private matter, a clear violation of our ethics,” a spokeswoman for the newspaper said. “This was done without the knowledge or approval of the Times.”

Early this year, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that Natasha Frost downloaded 900 pages of chats from a WhatsApp group set up by Jewish professionals called “Down Under” as a support mechanism following the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7 that set off the ongoing war and an avalanche of antisemitism throughout the world, including Australia.

She had been invited to, and joined, the group in its early days, said the paper, but did not ask permission to reveal its contents, which included discussions about protesting against media personalities who expressed themselves in a biased manner against Jews.

Several days before she wrote a story on one such case, WSJ said, she told one of the group’s administrators she was leaving it “to avoid, among other things, any perception that she would violate the privacy of its members.”

She then handed the thick folder of conversations to one of the people she had interviewed, who seemingly passed it on to a virulently anti-Israel group that began doxxing the Jewish members, releasing their personal information online, including their addresses and pictures.

This led to many being threatened and harassed, both in person and online.

After getting many vicious phone calls and their store being vandalized several times, one Jewish Melbourne family, the Moshes, reportedly felt the need to go into hiding once the parents received a picture of their young child with the words “We know where you live.”

In another case, Siana Einfeld’s Jewish school was repeatedly called and told the teacher was “complicit in genocide.” She was also personally threatened, leading her to install a security system at home.

Both the Moshes and Einfeld reported the actions against them to the police. In April, a police report mentioned Frost, the WSJ report said.

The Jewish WhatsApp group requested that the Times help them identify the person to whom Frost had supplied the chats, so far to no avail.

Frost has apologized for what she did, saying that the information’s “subsequent dissemination and misuse happened entirely without my knowledge or consent. I was shocked by these events, which put me and many others at terrible risk. I deeply regret my decision and I have no plans to comment further.”

The New York paper’s spokesperson told WSJ that it had “reviewed the matter and appropriate action” was taken.

This was seemingly only disciplinary in nature, as Frost is still an accredited reporter for the prestigious daily.

Australians For Israel political activist Drew Pavlou thought that NYT’s response did not go nearly far enough.

“Natasha helped an extremist anti-Zionist group compile a list of Australian Jews to be targeted and purged from Australian life,” he wrote on Instagram, by “covertly gain[ing] access” to the WhatsApp group and then leaking “the entire thing to extremists so that they could go on a Jew hunting rampage.”

“Natasha says she feels sorry about the whole thing,” he wrote. “I think Natasha should be in jail.”

A person commenting on the post pointed out that “her apology doesn’t absolve her for responsibility,” adding that if “she’s really sorry about what she did then she should name the person whom she released this information to. She knew exactly what she was doing.”

anti-Israel activistsAntisemitismAustraliaIsrael-Hamas warThe New York Times