How a New York Times reporter caused the Australian Jewish doxing scandal

In February, The Jewish Independent broke the story about the leaking (‘doxing”) of personal details of 600 members of a Jewish WhatsApp support group by anti-Zionist activists, leading to death threats against a Melbourne family, the ruin of their business and months of vilification for many others whose details were disclosed.

The identities of those who leaked the details of the Jewish creatives were soon discovered and published. But one crucial aspect of the saga has remained unknown: how did the information get into their hands in the first place?

Six months on, the source has been revealed and the story has gone international, enmeshing one of the world’s most prestigious newspapers, The New York Times, with one of its journalists named in media reports last month as Ground Zero of the leak.

The reporter’s name is Natasha Frost, a Times reporter based in Melbourne, who was an early member of the WhatsApp group,” the Wall Street Journal reported, in a story republished by The Australian on August 27.

“Frost downloaded about 900 pages of content from the chat thread and shared it with the subject of an article she had worked on. Later, the information wound up in the hands of the activists,” the WSJ report said.

The New York Times said it had taken “appropriate action” against Natasha Frost but did not elaborate on what that was, the WSJ added, and that Frost remains on staff. Frost has not named to whom she passed the information.