October 7, Two Years On: How Social Media Mainstreamed Antisemitism (And How It Can Be Fixed) ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, October 09, 2025

October 7, Two Years On: How Social Media Mainstreamed Antisemitism (And How It Can Be Fixed)

Two years after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s new report, Social Media and the Normalisation of Hate, shows that antisemitism hasn’t merely surged online: it’s evolving, metastasizing, and embedding itself into the fabric of digital culture.

Drawing on nearly 11,000 antisemitic posts collected from ten major platforms—including X (Twitter), TikTok, Reddit, and Telegram—the report shows an average 833% jump in antisemitic content in the months following October 7, 2023. Even as 2024 saw a partial decline, hate levels never returned to baseline. By mid-2025, antisemitism was rising again almost everywhere.

On Gab, BitChute, Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok, antisemitic content has reached record highs. Even mainstream platforms like X and Facebook show a steady upward trajectory. LinkedIn is the lone exception—holding roughly steady—but even there, antisemitic narratives persist.

The researchers identify 27 categories of antisemitic content, grouped into “traditional,” “Holocaust-related,” “incitement,” and “anti-Israel” forms. The most common narratives are:

Traditional antisemitism—blood libels, “Jews killed Jesus,” and slurs—remains the most prevalent (36% of all antisemitic content).
Jewish world conspiracy theories have rebounded, especially on far-right platforms.
Israel reframed through antisemitic tropes—the “Zionist blood libel” has become the new mainstream.
Control narratives (Jews or Israel manipulating media, finance, or government) dominate fringe networks but leak into mainstream comment threads.
Dehumanization, portraying Jews as “rats,” “snakes,” or “parasites,” remains endemic.
Denial of Jewish self-determination—“Zionism is racism”—has resurfaced in academic and activist spaces.
Holocaust glorification and “Hitler was right” rhetoric circulate openly on TikTok and X.
Incitement to violence, often couched as “resistance,” is now routine.
Comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany—a form of Holocaust inversion—persist across platforms.

October 7 also reshaped online hate:

October 7 denial and “false flag” claims mirror Holocaust denial, dismissing or mocking reports of sexual violence and civilian massacres.
Glorification of Hamas: graffiti, memes, and posts proclaiming “October 7: Do it again” spreads both on- and offline.
Racist Anti-Zionism, a mutation of far-left “anti-colonial” rhetoric, now justifies violence against Jews as “anti-racism.”
Nazi Glorification has reemerged, fueled by the mainstreaming of antisemitic discourse.
Iranian disinformation networks amplify all of it, through Telegram, fake “anti-hate” channels, and propaganda blending anti-Israel and sectarian messaging.

The report highlights chilling Australian case studies: the 2024–2025 Melbourne synagogue arsons, traced to Iranian funding, triggered a wave of online denial and victim-blaming. Posts called the attacks “false flags,” mocked Jewish grief, and even suggested the victims torched their own buildings for “insurance money.” Such reactions illustrate how digital hate desensitizes real-world violence.

The report’s message is clear: the platforms are not just hosting antisemitism: they are shaping it. TikTok’s virality, X’s chaos, and Telegram’s opacity each incubate distinct strains of hate, while moderation systems lag far behind. The authors urge continuous monitoring, public accountability, and renewed civic vigilance, warning that the normalization of hate is eroding the social immune system against violence.

Two months ago, I created a social media policy - based on my recent work in ethics - that would respect both posters and readers on social media, keep freedom of speech but drastically reduce the spread of hate. Any social media company should look at this policy as a way to use AI intelligently to flag potentially inflammatory posts and give the posters a chance to rewrite them or allow them to have their reach reduced, among other ideas.

We need this policy more than ever. Because the hate begets more hate.