The online tsunami of anti-Semitic posts that emerged in the wake of the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust has left people terrified. Hate speech on the internet has had real-world consequences, creating a new generation of anti-Semites. In addition to the war on the battlefield, there is also an intense battle for public opinion on social media: an information war for which Israel was not prepared.
Information is power, and the fight for control of the narrative is a common tactic in times of war. As World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder put it: “For a brief moment after October 7, the world stood in solidarity with the Jewish state. But within days of the attack—while Israel was still counting its dead—we saw the world turn against us. It was hard for us to realize that we were witnessing the first full-blown, premeditated social media war unfolding against a people and a nation—our own. Israel’s enemies were well prepared to launch their global campaign, blaming the very victims of the terrorist attack.”
On October 7, Hamas caused an uproar online. Terrorists invaded southern Israel, live-streaming the killings and destruction using $150 GoPro cameras and their cell phones. Hamas members documented the massacre of men, women, children and the elderly, the burning of families alive and the kidnapping of people, including a baby under one year old and elderly Holocaust survivors. Their goal was to humiliate and show the world that Israel is not indestructible.
Hamas and its allies have launched a war on social media – a war that, by all indications, has a much better chance of winning than the one being waged on the streets of Gaza. To quote Ronald Lauder, 97% of the coverage of the conflict on social media is hostile, and only 3% is favorable to Israel and the Jewish people. These numbers indicate that this is not an organic phenomenon, as they do not reflect public opinion on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, not even among the younger generation. This shows that there are organized and efficient groups behind this massive war of disinformation.
In the month following Hamas’ invasion of Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), anti-Semitic content increased by more than 919 percent on X (formerly Twitter) and 28 percent on Facebook. As soon as the news broke on October 7, there were already people online celebrating Hamas' acts of terror.
Social media campaigns are part of Hamas’s overall strategy to gain support from supporters, spread its narrative, win hearts and minds – especially those of young people – and pressure the international community to take a stand against Israel. Many have bought into Hamas’s narrative, in which terrorists are the victims and Israel is the aggressor.
The rise of hate on social media
Social media is a breeding ground for hate and extremism. Extremists, neo-Nazis, and terrorists use tactics to attract and recruit young adults and teenagers. They advocate violence against blacks, Jews, and other minorities. They promote violence, intolerance, anti-Semitism, racism, denialism, and conspiracy theories. The goal is to seduce these young people with the illusion that they belong to a cause, channel their anger, and radicalize them. These young people tend to be more emotionally fragile and less informed—an ideal combination for groups like Hamas.
The demonstration online The anti-Jewish hatred was already a major concern before the war and has increased exponentially since October 7. Before the attack, social media was already full of anti-Semitic messages such as “Hitler should have finished his job” and “Hitler was right.” After October 7, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other networks not as well known to the general public were quickly flooded with millions of posts inciting hatred and calling for violence and mass murder of Jews and Israelis – using Slogans as "gas the Jews” (“Kill the Jews in the gas chambers”) and “Death to Israel.” Violent and anti-Semitic posts were shared and liked millions of times, even though hate speech violates social media rules and is supposedly prohibited.
In an analysis conducted by the Anti-Defamation League between September 30 and October 13, nearly two million posts with the hashtag #IsraeliNewNazism (#NewIsraeliNazism) appeared on X during this period, and more than 46 posts used the hashtag #HitlerWasRight (#HitlerWasRight). In the months before the attack, the latter appeared less than five thousand times per month. Now #DeathtotheJews is #DeathtoJews (#DeathToJews) appeared more than 51 times in the month following October 7, compared with XNUMX times the month before.
The image of a paraglider descending with a Palestinian flag and the words “I support Palestine” (“I Stand with Palestine”) went viral. The image references the Hamas gunmen who used paragliders to invade the Nova music festival in Israel, where more than 360 people were killed. Some of these posts on Facebook and Instagram were commented on, such as “They should have killed more” and “Kill more Jews.”
The rising anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment on social media has had real-world consequences. A clear example of this is that since October 7, the Anti-Defamation League has recorded a 10-fold increase in anti-Semitic incidents in fields students in the United States. This increase is occurring in parallel with the rise of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic content on social media. Khymani James, for example, one of the leaders of the anti-Israel student protest at Columbia University, used TikTok to get his message across. In a video on the platform, he declared: “There should be no Zionists anywhere. Zionists are Nazis… Zionists don’t deserve to live in this world. Thank me for not going around killing Zionists left and right.”
The American Jewish Committee's 2023 State of Antisemitism in the United States Report reveals that online and social media continues to be where American Jews—62 percent of those surveyed—most often encounter anti-Semitism. Jewish teens and young adults are most likely to experience anti-Semitic harassment online than the older ones.
Social media companies have been widely criticized. Governments around the world are pressuring companies to do more to control and filter content. People who have been radicalized online have committed terrorist attacks, anti-Semitic attacks, young people have been driven to suicide, misinformation has influenced vaccination campaigns and elections. The rise in anti-Semitism online highlighted again the failure of these companies to adequately invest in technologies and people designed to remove false, violent and dangerous content.
the algorithms
Social media algorithms are the complex programming that determines what small fraction of the billions of pieces of content – like posts, videos or memes – that will be displayed to each person. These algorithms adjust the feeds according to individual interests, making the user experience unique. Algorithms shape the way billions of people receive and process information every day.
The business model of social networks is based on the number of users and the time they spend browsing. Algorithms look for content that generates the most engagement, making the user stay longer on that platform, generating more advertising revenue for the company. Therefore, the algorithm of each social media is developed to promote the content that is most likely to capture attention. Once the algorithm discovers what captures the user's attention, it starts showing more of the same.
Polarizing, outrageous, and inflammatory content tends to engage people more than less controversial posts, and is therefore promoted more by algorithms. When the algorithm understands that people tend to identify with one side of any issue, it tends to show content only from that side. This algorithmic structure further distorts viewpoints and creates increasingly polarized and conflicting opinions in society as people are exposed to less diverse and more extreme views.
This business model often ends up promoting conspiracy theories, racism, anti-Semitism and spreading hate – because this content attracts more attention from those browsing. Social media companies do little to control this type of content because it generates revenue.
The distortion of information is even more exacerbated on TikTok. On Facebook, Instagram or X, users often see posts from people they follow – acquaintances, friends or relatives – mixed in with some trending posts or sponsored posts. On TikTok, some videos may be from people the user follows, but most of them are not. In their feeds, users see videos suggested by the app's algorithm, which are played one after the other, potentially exposing people to radical ideologies even when they're not looking for them. And if the user shows even the slightest interest in conspiracy theories or any other hateful topic, the app will continue to show them more of that type of content.
As the war between Israel and Hamas rages on, algorithms tend to promote more content on this topic. As we have seen, due to the natural of the algorithms, this content, created to capture the attention of those who are browsing the app, tends to be more extreme and provocative, showing, in most cases, only one side of the conflict.
Social networks are a source of news
Social media usage is growing exponentially and becoming an integral part of people’s daily lives around the world. By 2024, there will be 3,05 billion monthly active users on Facebook, 2 billion on Instagram and 1,56 billion on TikTok.
Research shows that social media is one of the main sources of news in the United States. According to a Pew Research Center survey of American news consumption habits, half of adults in the United States get at least some of their information from social media. For 66% of young people, TikTok, Facebook, and X are their main sources of news. TikTok users said they don’t use the platform primarily for news, but most end up seeing content related to the topics, regardless of whether they turn to TikTok for that purpose. The majority of news on this social media platform comes from people’s opinions (80%) about current events. The survey found that across all platforms, many users encounter information that they consider inaccurate.
While most newspapers and TV news outlets are politically inclined, media companies are still subject to regulation. They are held accountable for what they report, and even when they are biased, they tend to provide more comprehensive coverage of events. Social media, on the other hand, is largely unregulated. It has become a breeding ground for fake news and conspiracy theories. Obtaining news through social media – other than through respected magazines and newspapers – leads to a misinformed population. This lack or distortion of information has had serious impacts on our society, influencing, for example, the outcome of elections.
There is an aggravating factor on TikTok. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, where friends and family are the main sources of information, news on TikTok comes from influencers, celebrities, and even strangers. Journalists and media outlets are the least common sources of information on TikTok.
The information war
Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent retaliation by Israeli forces in Gaza, the content flooding social media has revealed, once again, that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way millions of people around the world consume content. False moral equivalences, half-truths, outright lies, misinformation and conspiracy theories are being spread. online in huge volumes and at impressive speed. Posts, stories and videos are the weapons used in the battle for public opinion.
But what puts the Israel-Hamas war on a different level is how disproportionate the content consumed has become. online.Digital Bridge's analysis of data from CrowdTangle, a social analytics tool owned by Meta, has shown that on platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Instagram, there is an asymmetry in which more pro-Palestinian content is created compared to pro-Israeli material. At its peak, according to Generation Lab's report, 98,6% of views of war-related content on TikTok in the US had a hashtag pro-Palestine.
Even before Israel began its ground invasion of Gaza, the internet was abuzz with people justifying, mocking, or denying the massacre that took place in southern Israel. According to the Anti-Defamation League, nine days after that fateful October 7, a TikTok video promoting conspiracy theories about the origins of the Hamas attacks, including false claims that Israel had orchestrated them, had already been viewed by more than 300 users. A false post on X was viewed more than 20 times, showing Israelis staging the killings of civilians for the cameras. And many people believed it. People filmed removing hostage posters claimed that there were no hostages and that the kidnappings were Israeli propaganda.
In this fight for public opinion, Hamas’ strategy is to portray itself as the victim and Israel as the aggressor, using the death toll and civilian suffering in Gaza as a PR tactic. On October 26, 2023, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran last July, commented on the loss of civilian lives in Gaza and said: “We need the blood of the women, children and elderly in the Gaza Strip to awaken the revolutionary spirit within us.” This Hamas strategy has worked. As people, especially young people, see the heartbreaking images from Gaza on social media, their anger is fueled and they end up believing Hamas’ lies and narrative.
On the other hand, the Israeli government chose to protect the privacy and dignity of the victims by only publishing evidence of the atrocities committed with the permission of their families. The world has had access to only a small part of what happened.
Today, the images and videos circulating on social media offer a very distorted representation of the truth of what happened in Israel and Gaza during and after October 7.
TikTok
TikTok is the fastest growing social network in terms of users. In 2024, TikTok has 1,56 billion monthly active users, who spend an average of 58 minutes and 24 seconds per day on the platform. app. Popular among younger people, 69,3% of TikTok users are between 18 and 34 years old.
The network is easy to use and allows anyone to produce short videos – up to three minutes long – to post. Its algorithm also makes it much easier for a video to go viral, compared to other social networks. A video from a user with no followers can quickly gain an audience.
Video content is difficult to monitor using AI, as problematic content can be displayed visually and it is always easier to monitor text than video. TikTok users are also known to circumvent censorship through abbreviations or coded language. In the world of anti-Semitism, “H!tl3r” or “that Austrian painter” helps users talk about Hitler without being detected. “Juice” or “the joos” are used to refer to Jews (Jews, in English).
Anti-Semitism on TikTok
Social media is a breeding ground for anti-Semitism – and TikTok is its worst offender. The spread of hate on TikTok is all the more alarming and dangerous given its young audience and the power of its influence on this vulnerable group. Children and young people are more naive and gullible when it comes to malicious content, and are at greater risk of being radicalized and mobilized. And extremists exploit the platform’s fragile security to recruit followers.
Anti-Semitic posts on TikTok appear in the form of videos, comments, texts, hashtags and usernames. Even before October 7, Jewish users were reporting that “life” on TikTok was accompanied by anti-Semitism. An anti-Semitic song about Jews being killed in Auschwitz, for example, has been viewed more than six million times worldwide. One video showed a succession of young people making Nazi salutes. Another TikTok video included the message, “I have a solution; a Final Solution,” referring to the Holocaust. Comments about this tragedy include: “Bring back the Holocaust,” “All Jews must die,” “Happy Holocaust,” and “Peace to Hitler.”
Another recent format used to spread hate is TikTok challenges. In 2020, the “#holocaustchallenge” (“#HolocaustChallenge”), in which people pretended to be Holocaust victims, making videos with fake bruises and wearing clothes that the Nazis forced Jews to wear. And several other anti-Semitic challenges.
Anti-Semitism is also evident through usernames such as “@holocaustwasgood” (holocaust was good), “@holocaust.is.fake” (holocaust is false), “@eviljews” (evil Jews), “@antisemiticandproud” (anti-Semitic and proud), “@violentantisemite” (violent anti-Semite) and “@thejewsrunmedia” (Jews control the media).
Comments and videos promote conspiracy theories, such as the idea that Jews are conspiring to control the world, the media, the banks, and the government. The comments include emojis of nose, emojis of shower and petrol pump (referring to the gas chambers of the Holocaust), in addition to the word “Heil” accompanied by a emoji of a person raising their hand, in reference to the Nazi salute.
Although TikTok claims to implement moderation tools to keep hate speech, misinformation and incitement to violence off its platforms, users continue to post such content even though it is prohibited.
After October 7th
The Chinese-owned platform is accountable to its government. Since October 7, China has taken a stance against Israel. Since then, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiment has run rampant on the Chinese internet and in state-dominated media. Some critics claim that TikTok is boosting pro-Palestinian content and videos and not censoring anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist content to align itself with the Beijing government. On the other hand, TikTok’s algorithm has been accused of not boosting posts by pro-Israel content creators and of censoring or even closing their accounts. Personal accounts from Israeli civilians about atrocities experienced on October 7 have even been removed from the platform.
At a meeting of Jewish celebrities with TikTok executives, actor Sasha Baron Cohen expressed his concerns: “TikTok is creating the biggest anti-Semitic movement since the Nazis. You should be ashamed of yourselves! If you think back to October 7th, the reason Hamas was able to behead young men and rape women is because they were fed hateful images from a young age.”
Some Jewish celebrities have written a letter saying TikTok is “not safe for Jewish users” due to threats, harassment, and anti-Semitism. Jewish content creators on the platform have reported receiving a barrage of hate, even when they share content that is not related to Israel but is instead religious or cultural in nature. For example, when someone posts about their bar mitzvah, the comments are often flooded with the slogan “Free Palestine” and the emoji of the Palestinian flag.
According to research conducted by Anthony Goldbloom, data scientist and CEO of Kaggle, the world's largest data science community, there are 54 views of videos with hashtags pro-Palestine for every view of a video with hashtags pro-Israel, on TikTok in the US.
The official numbers from this social media platform point to a disparity, even if they confirm this trend. The platform says that videos with the hashtag #StandWithPalestine (#SupportPalestine) have accumulated around 4,8 billion views. On the other hand, hashtag #StandWithIsrael (#SupportIsrael) received just under 600 million views. In other words, the hashtag #StandWithPalestine received eight times more views. According to data from this social network, hashtag #StandwithPalestine is most prevalent in Malaysia, followed by Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar. And the #freepalestine (#FreePalestine) is one of the most popular on all of TikTok.
A Fox News report featured anonymous accounts from Jewish TikTok employees who said that after October 7, the company created support groups for Palestinian employees but said it could not offer the same option to Israeli employees because it was “too political.” Screenshots were also leaked showing how moderators openly promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, celebrate Hamas atrocities and use the emoji watermelon – a political symbol of Palestine. This report showed screenshots that support claims that moderators are allowing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel content to pass through.
TikTok says that since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the company has removed more than 24 million fake accounts and more than 500 comments from “bots” in content with hashtags related to the conflict.
Who is behind the accounts?
According to Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, since the beginning of the conflict, “sophisticated Hamas-linked operatives have launched a 24/7 barrage against Israel, firing continuous streams of vile anti-Semitism across social media and other platforms.”
Research by Generation Lab found that much of the problematic content about the conflict on TikTok comes from countries including Pakistan and Qatar. Russia, Iraq and Iran have also spread anti-Semitic messages and misinformation about the war.
According to Cyabra, an Israeli company that analyzes social media, one in five accounts engaged in conversations about the Israel-Hamas war are “bots”, that is, bots that operate automatically. And many other accounts are of real people who use false identities to spread pro-Hamas propaganda and lies against Israel. These profiles suggest, for example, that rapes have never been committed and that Hamas treats hostages well, even when all the evidence proves otherwise.
Banning TikTok
TikTok has already been banned in India and is at risk of being banned in the United States. The Indian government has cited concerns over user privacy, saying Chinese apps threaten the country's sovereignty and security.
US President Joe Biden signed a bill in April this year to ban TikTok if Chinese company ByteDance fails to find an American buyer. According to the bill, the problem stems from the fact that TikTok is owned by a “foreign adversary,” which poses a threat to national security.
The concern is that TikTok has access to sensitive data from 170 million American users – nearly half the population – and that this information could be shared with the Chinese government. This content could be used to manipulate and influence millions of Americans.
What can be done?
Do not interact with anti-Semites on social media; do not respond to, share, repost, or otherwise engage with the material. Social media algorithms reward content that generates responses from users, even if the responses are negative. By engaging with this content, you increase the chance of promoting it on the platform.
If someone is a victim of anti-Semitism, support them on their page. If you are a victim, do not share the post in which you were attacked. Instead, create a new post to alert your friends and family.
To combat anti-Israel narratives, we must not remain silent. When someone posts in favor of Israel, it is crucial to comment, repost, and share the post to help influence the algorithm. Additionally, we need to post to amplify pro-Israel voices on social media by posting facts and standing up for the truth.
The misinformation that spreads on X, TikTok and other platforms is shaping public perceptions of the situation in Gaza and Israel. And public opinion, in turn, puts pressure on politicians. As Ronald Lauder warned, “Israel cannot afford to lose this front.”
It took nearly 10 years of Nazi propaganda to shape the minds of Germans – culminating in the Holocaust. Imagine the damage that could be done by social media if it failed to address the same propaganda that is circulating on its platforms today. Social media has normalized anti-Semitism. It is hate and anti-Semitism for profit. Only this time, the reach of anti-Semitic propaganda is global.
REFERENCES
Antisemitism: 'Free Palestine' Supporters Harass Jewish creators. Article published by Joshua Nelken-Zitser on the Business Insider website, May 23, 2021
Citing 'trauma porn,' MK raps TikTok for failing to halt spread of anti-Semitism. Article published by the newspaper The Times of Israel on October 14, 2020
TikTok: a growing source of news, especially for young adults. Article published by Sabrina Quagliozzi on The Media Leader website on June 12, 2024
The Israel-Hamas war reveals how social media sells you the illusion of reality. Reporting by CNN's Brian Fung and Clare Duffy on October 16, 2023