A man identified as the first person to publicly post the false rumour online about Auckland's Covid-19 index family says 'what I did was inexcusable', and that he would understand if he were charged by police over it.
The rumour, which falsely claimed that a woman within the family who was first diagnosed with Covid-19 in the latest outbreak had broken quarantine rules, spread online wildly last week.
Health Minister Chris Hipkins was inclined to publicly rebuke the rumour on Sunday, saying it has been investigated thoroughly and was found to be "totally and utterly wrong", as well as highly distressing to the family involved.
Mr Hipkins said the rumour had been circulating widely on social media in the past 24 hours. (Source: Other)
The post reporting the rumour on Facebook, which was widely-shared through screenshots, has since been deleted, with the owners of the page claiming they were subjected to "violent threats" after posting it.
This morning, investigative journalists David Farrier and Dylan Reeve posted an article online in which the person thought to be the original source of the rumour spoke about his regret, saying he now fears for his reputation, his job, and his future.
The man, who is not named in the post, said he erroneously connected two pieces of information together which he had heard from people at Auckland University, and made the decision to post that information on Reddit.
"There was some talk from a friend from Auckland Uni, and some other people had mentioned to me as well, related around somebody sneaking into a managed isolation," the man told Reeve, who published a story on the conversation on his Webworm site.
"Like everyone, I was scrambling for answers.
"So it was basically - I made a poor decision to put that in writing on Reddit."
From there, within hours, it was picked up by the Facebook page, and modified to include further untrue, offensive and derogatory details before republishing on that platform.
By the time the man realised that posting the rumour online was "a bad idea" and taking it down, he said it had already begun to spread - he had lost control of it.
"I just realised how bad it was on Saturday, which is when I went in and tried to clean up as much as I could, but by then it's got a life of its own," he said.
The man told Reeve has spent the last few days wondering if he should simply turn himself into police for his part in it.
"It was probably the dumbest thing I have ever done.
"Seeing what happened, and whether that came from me articulating that, or whether someone had articulated that same thing but put their own spin on it - what I did was inexcusable.
"And I will take the consequences, because honestly it's one of the worst things I've ever done, articulating that.
Police this afternoon said they are assessing information around the post.
"Police are assessing information relating to these rumours which were peddled on social media over the weekend," a spokesperson said.
"That assessment includes taking into account the views of the individual who was at the centre of this false information.
"She and the family just want to move on from this matter as their focus is the health and wellbeing of their family.
"Police will make a further assessment as a result of the news published today to see if any further investigative steps are required."
JOURNALISTS WANTED TO SHOW PEOPLE HOW RUMOURS LIKE THIS START
Farrier told TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning that "it was an incredibly racist post, but we wanted to find out where that came from.
"A lot people just blindly accepted it as fact," Farrier said.
"His original post wasn't filled with racist comments, it was just him putting two incorrect facts together and that's how it started.
"He's been mortified - he tried to stop this thing once he'd posted it on Reddit but by then it was on everyone's Facebook walls to the point where the Government had to come out and say 'please stop doing this'.
"I'm hoping that in reading this interview with this guy, people can sort of understand where this stuff comes from, and how it starts."
Farrier said many people were spreading false information for "internet fame, and clicks and kudos, on some level", but said "there are obviously also active disinformation campaigns.
"It's no coincidence that Donald Trump - the President of the United States who has propagated infinite amounts of lies and misinformation and disinformation - regularly retweets QAnon accounts.
"This stuff powers him, they are his voter base and they are out to disrupt the conversation."
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