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Someone is using Dezi Freeman's social media account while he's on the run

The accused Porepunkah police shooter's Telegram account has been active within the last 24 hours.

Dezi Freeman's Telegram account says it was "last seen recently" at 9PM AEST

A social media account believed to belong to the accused Porepunkah police shooter Dezi Freeman has been used while he has been evading police, seemingly within the last day.

Earlier this week, I was tipped off to a Telegram account with a name similar to Freeman and with posts consistent with his other known social media posts and public beliefs.

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Telegram is a social media and messaging platform that has been widely adopted by those in the Australian conspiracy theory community. 

Telegram accounts have a “last seen” indicator which gives approximate information about when the account was last active.

Of the four possible options, Telegram will say that an account has been “last seen recently” when an account has been active within 2-3 days, or that it has been “last seen within a week” if an account has been active between 2-3 days and 7 days before that point.  

Freeman’s Telegram currently says that it has been “last seen recently”. This means that it has been active at least within the last three days by Telegram’s definition — seemingly meaning it’s been used since the morning of the 26th of August when Freeman’s allegedly killed two police and injured another.

In fact, it seems that this Telegram account has been used within the last 24 hours. When I looked at Freeman’s account on Thursday morning, it said it was “last seen recently”, putting its use within a window that preceded the attack. Then, by Thursday evening, it changed to “last seen within a week”, again consistent with use before the attack.

Sometime since yesterday afternoon, the account changed back to “last seen recently”, suggesting it has been used within that time. 

The identity of the person who used Freeman’s account is unknown. Anyone with access to a device previously logged into Telegram could have used it. This could feasibly include police accessing another device owned by Freeman, Freeman himself, or another third party. 

According to dozens of Telegram messages sent by Freeman’s account in a channel belonging to one Australian far right figure since 2022, the account was used mostly to post violent messages about police.

Freeman’s account did not respond to a message or an invitation to join a phone call.

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