Joshua Ryne Goldberg (born May 14, 1995) is an American internet troll,[1] convicted of attempting a bombing on the 14th anniversary of the September 11 attacks[2] while posing as an Islamic terrorist affiliated with ISIS.
[2] The "Australi Witness" persona had, posing as a Perth jihadist, called for an attack on, and posted maps of, the center where the exhibit was taking place.
[7] In addition to his accounts that purported to be Islamic terrorism supporters, he made thousands of troll posts under different aliases advocating for liberal feminism, neo-Nazism, and other ideologies.
In a 2019 self-published article on Medium, Goldberg admitted to having operated at least 27 different accounts on Reddit alone and many more on other websites, with false online identities on all sides of the ideological spectrum.
[9] Initially charged with distributing information about bomb-making techniques in connection with a planned attack on a 2015 Kansas City 9/11 memorial event,[10] Goldberg's trial was suspended pending efforts by doctors to return him to competence[11] after it emerged that he had a history of mental illness.
[12] Goldberg was returned to competency and on December 20, 2017, pleaded guilty to federal charges of attempted malicious damage and destruction by an explosive of a building.
[19] After learning of his internet activities, the FBI attempted to place him under physical surveillance, but this was generally ineffective because for several weeks he did not leave his parents' house or open the front door.
Subsequently, two men, identified as Phoenix, Arizona, residents Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, were shot dead by police as they attempted to attack the contest.
[28] According to the FBI, Australi Witness posted to an ISIS-related website that he had recruited two people (one in Los Angeles, the other in Melbourne) to, "using guns, shoot up local synagogues when the maximum amount of Jews are praying", stating that "the entire thing was my idea, and I helped them every step of the way".
[22] Australi Witness also claimed to have worked for Amnesty International,[5] asked followers to target Australian cartoonist Larry Pickering, and repeatedly attempted to associate himself with anti-Islamophobia campaigner Mariam Veiszadeh.
[29] Goldberg reportedly set up a fake Twitter account in the name of anti-sexual exploitation campaigner Caitlin Roper, who allegedly earned his ire because of her efforts to get the video game Grand Theft Auto V banned in Australia.
[31] Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto apologized for believing a hoax allegedly perpetrated by Goldberg under the name "Tanya Cohen" earlier in 2015.
[39] In April 2015, Goldberg covertly wrote and posted a hoax article on a Times of Israel blog calling for the extermination of the Palestinian people.
[31] On April 28, 2024, 27 days after his prison release, Goldberg announced on his X account an "ask me anything" (AMA) session on the imageboard soyjak.party, as he was unable to make one on Reddit due to having been banned from the site.
[42][43] News reports about the Australi Witness online persona calling for the Garland attack first brought the account to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).