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SYDNEY: Australia’s spy chief has warned anti-immigration rallies are being exploited by neo-Nazi groups and “Russian operatives” to sow discord, as the country faces a trend seen across Western democracies of declining trust and rising disinformation.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s director-general of security, Mike Burgess, said on Tuesday community cohesion is under attack in an unprecedented way.

ASIO is investigating pro-Russian social media influencers who are working with an offshore media organization to condemn Australia’s support for Kyiv, while also using “social media to spread vitriolic, polarizing commentary on anti-immigration protests and pro-Palestinian marches,” he said.

“These state-sanctioned trolls are more than propaganda puppets; they want to turn hot-button issues into burning issues, tipping disagreement into division and division into violence,” he said, giving the annual Lowy Institute address.

A large neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network, had also attempted to leverage recent anti-immigration and cost-of-living rallies in Australia, he said.

Australia in August expelled Iran’s ambassador and said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had directed two anti-Semitic attacks in Australia by using intermediaries.

“Iran did not single Australia out; the summer of anti-Semitism was part of its global effort to ferment hatred of the Jewish community and fan the flames of division,” he said.

Such efforts were achieving “limited traction,” he added, pointing to the stabilising impact of Australia’s social-welfare safety net, compulsory voting and growing economy.

While social media algorithms are accelerating extremism and raising the risk of violence, it is people who create the content and decide to act on it, Burgess said.

“I worry we risk creating real world ‘aggro-rhythms’ where grievance, intolerance, polarization and rhetoric feed on themselves,” he said.

ASIO had also assessed there is a “realistic possibility a foreign government will attempt to assassinate a perceived dissident in Australia,” he added.

“We believe there are at least three nations willing and capable of conducting lethal targeting here,” he said, without naming the nations.