Australian man is accused of being Islamic State group propagandist who shared 10,000 files online

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A man in the Australian city of Melbourne is accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and spreading thousands of pieces of extremist propaganda online over a period of years, the authorities said on Wednesday.

He was the seventh man to be arrested in Victoria state since May over allegations of possessing or distributing IS content online. Australia's federal police didn't link the latest arrest to the other six and wouldn't say if they believed the man's case was connected.

The 65-year-old Australian citizen, whose name hasn't been released, was due to appear in a Melbourne court later on Wednesday. He's charged with being a member of a terrorist organization and with transmitting violent extremist material in an encrypted messaging app the authorities didn't name.

The maximum penalty for the offenses is 10 years in prison.

The authorities said the man had sent 10,000 files containing extremist content between 2015 and 2020, including material relating to executions, torture and IS propaganda. The federal police allege that he also shared information about avoiding detection from law enforcement and instructional guides on planning and conducting mass casualty attacks, a statement Wednesday said.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Paula Hudson told reporters in Canberra that the scale and distribution of the materials by the man “placed him as a principal distributor of ISIS propaganda within the group.”

“The material glorified acts of violence and terrorism, spreading hateful ideology that is designed to radicalize others,” Hudson said.

An investigation into the man began when border officials examined the man's luggage as he departed Australia for a six-month trip to Egypt in 2020, the authorities said. He wasn't known to have traveled abroad since 2020 and wasn't linked to any attack or plot, Hudson said.

Earlier this month, a 30-year-old Melbourne man was arrested and charged with possessing violent extremist content as he attempted to depart Australia for the Middle East, authorities said. The federal police allege he was part of an online group chat with five other Victoria state men arrested in May, who all face charges relating to possessing extremist material, including IS propaganda.

The Islamic State group is a scattered and considerably weaker group since a 2019 United States-led military intervention drove it out of territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria, but its cells remain active and it has inspired a number of independent attacks, including in western countries. In Australia, a mass shooting at a Hanukkah event in 2025, in which two men are accused of killing 15 Jewish people, was motivated by the shooters' IS affiliations, the authorities allege.

It's thought 200 Australians traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State group between 2012 and 2019, according to a website for the country's national security agencies. Dozens more “assisted” IS by supporting those overseas or by planning or carrying out terrorist attacks in Australia, the website says.