AAP FACTCHECK – Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has been declared a global terrorist by Australia, some social media users claim.
This is false. The Australian government says Mr Soros is not on any terror list published by Canberra.
Mr Soros is a Hungarian-born American financier and philanthropist who was born into a wealthy Jewish family uprooted by the Nazis.
He is a frequent target of conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic attacks, including that he was a former Nazi and that he is plotting a revolution in the US.
The claim that he has been declared a global terrorist in Australia appears in multiple Facebook posts.
“Australia declares George Soros a global terrorist,” one Facebook post reads. “Wonder why the dems don’t do this.”
A post on X, formerly Twitter, said: “Australia just declared Soros as a global terrorist. Why can’t (Justin) Trudeau (Prime Minister of Canada) do the same?”
The Australian government said the claim is false.
The Attorney-General’s Department told AAP FactCheck that Mr Soros and his organisations were not listed as terrorists.
The government has listed 30 terrorist organisations, including Hamas and Islamic State.
But not Mr Soros’s philanthropic organisation, Open Society Foundations, or its principal asset manager, Soros Fund Management LLC.
The government list doesn’t include individuals, the department said Mr Soros was not subject to any terrorist sanctions.
Journalist Mike Rothschild, a conspiracy theories expert, has said Mr Soros has taken the place of the Rothschild family as the target of anti-Semitic tropes.
Dr Ran Porat, a researcher at Monash University’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, said the attacks on Mr Soros had common anti-Semitic themes about Jewish control over funds, media and politics.
“What is interesting about Soros is … the anti-Semitism against him comes from both sides, from the extreme right like Trump and QAnon, and from the extreme left,” Dr Porat told AAP FactCheck.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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