The Anti-Defamation Commission has commended the Australian Federal Police for charging a Rockingham man over alleged online Nazi symbols, and called for the toughest penalty if the charges are proven.

“A swastika on a screen is still a swastika, and the hatred it carries never stays on the screen,” said the commission’s chairman, Dr Dvir Abramovich, who led the national campaign to ban the Nazi salute and swastika.

Dr Abramovich praised the police investigation. “Its National Security Investigations team traced the posts, searched a home and seized a phone,” he said. “Every neo-Nazi in this country who thinks an anonymous account is a bunker should read that sentence twice.”

“We are always told it is only posts, only pictures, only words typed into the void,” he said. “That is exactly how it begins. The symbol is posted, the post is shared, and somewhere a young man decides the next step is the street.”

Neo-Nazis think a keyboard is a mask. This week the AFP showed them it is a fingerprint.Dr Dvir Abramovich, ADC Chairman

The AFP said the 60-year-old man, who has not been named, faces one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, and five counts of publicly displaying prohibited Nazi symbols or giving a Nazi salute, over posts that allegedly attacked people because of their race, ethnicity and gender. Each offence carries a maximum of five years’ imprisonment. He is due in Perth Magistrates Court on 11 December.

“Parliament outlawed these symbols because we learned that lesson the hard way, and it set the penalty at up to five years’ jail for each charge. If these charges are proven, use it,” Dr Abramovich said. “A fine or a bond would be screenshotted and passed around extremist channels as a trophy. Neo-Nazis think a keyboard is a mask. This week the AFP showed them it is a fingerprint.”