Georgie Purcell is facing antisemitic and misogynistic abuse due to having a Jewish partner. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

The royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion is hearing evidence about hateful speech online. Labor MP Josh Burns told the inquiry that he and his office receive thousands of abusive messages, while his partner, Victorian Animal Justice MP Georgie Purcell, is attacked because of her association with him. Burns is Jewish, Purcell is not.

Burns gave the commission examples of abuse directed at him, including being called a "genocidal Zionist" and suggestions that an attack on his office was an inside job. Comments sent to Purcell included remarks about her relationship with him, such as: "You root a Zionist. You can't be trusted."

"The language in the examples reveals how antisemitic abuse directed at Georgie is compounded by misogynistic, often violent and sexualised commentary – directed at her because she is a woman," Burns wrote in his submission.

Purcell also collated abusive comments sent after she gave birth to their daughter, including: "Shut the fuck up. You got knocked up by a Zionist, you Nazi cunt."

He told the inquiry about the impact of antisemitism on his staff after his office was vandalised, and said there had been more than 1,000 phone calls and 10,000 abusive social media messages. He said "probably one of the hardest things" was to have someone you love get abused.

Burns said the Online Safety Act and social media platforms needed better ways to deal with the attacks. "Instagram knows when I was looking for a new high chair for my six-month-old. They can do a better job of … making it a bit safer online," he said.

Tahli Blicblau, chief executive officer of the Dor Foundation, established to combat antisemitism and hate, told the inquiry that those who came to give evidence about their experiences of antisemitism were "subjected to more of it". "They were targeted and abused online, at volume and across social media platforms," she said.

She gave 275 examples of such posts, saying they were just some of "many, many hundreds more" that included explicit calls for violence and murder, dehumanising language, degrading abuse, admiration for Hitler, Holocaust glorification, and conspiracy theories about witnesses being crisis actors.

Research presented to the commission found that after the 7 October Hamas attack, there was an increase in hateful content targeting Jews on X (formerly Twitter), and the level has stayed elevated. After the Bondi attack, there was a "small spike in anti-Jewish hate", but "a huge spike in anti-Muslim hate", said Associate Professor Dr Matteo Vergani.

Vergani's team also found that real incidents reported in the media then get circulated on social media. "So online hate is triggered by offline incidents," he said. The lab's work with large data sets showed there should be a cost-effective way to track, intervene or prevent hate without censorship.