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The number of posts claiming that Jews killed Jesus increased by over 1,000% on the X social media platform (formerly Twitter) in the first week following Hamas’ massacre on October 7, the CyberWell social media watchdog reported Monday.
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CyberWell, which monitors antisemitism and hate speech on social platforms said that the hashtag #HitlerWasRight surged by 1,600% in the wake of the war in Gaza.
According to the report, CyberWell's artificial intelligence technology detected an increase of over 86% in content classified as "highly probable" to be antisemitic during the war: between October 7 and October 31, close to 13,000 such posts were identified, compared to less than 7,000 between September 11 and October 6.
The report also points to a rise in calls for physical violence against Jews and Israelis, increasing from single-digit percentages in the month before the war to 61% of all Arabic discourse monitored by CyberWell from October 7.
The most dramatic rise in the number of antisemitic content occurred on Facebook, where 193% increase in the number of posts defined as highly probable to be antisemitic was recorded. On X, an 81% increase was noted in such content.
However, the prevalence of antisemitic content on X was much higher when compared to Facebook, with 9,849 posts during the period covered by the report compared to 1,091 on Facebook.
CyberWell points to social media platforms as an explanation for the massive increase, stating that Hamas successfully "hijacked" them. "Social media companies are complicit in the spreading of anti-Jewish hatred, incitement, and the glorification of violence which led to physical assault, harassment, and violence against Jews (and Muslims) around the world."
According to the report, "The companies must take responsibility for hosting such content due to the severity of the consequences resulting from the distribution of these materials via their platforms."
One of the key findings in the report was a sharp increase in the use of the phrase "Jews killed Jesus" in the days following October 7. The reach of posts containing the phrase jumped from 2.8 billion views before the conflict to 4.2 billion views between October 7t and October 24. On the X social media platform alone, the spread of the phrase increased by over 1,000%.
In addition, the watchdog identified a rise of 1,600% in the hashtag #HitlerWasRight, with a reach of 25 million views on X alone. For comparison, in the two weeks prior to the start of the war, the hashtag’s reach stood at only 300,000 views.
On October 17-18, following the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital the Palestinians attributed to Israel, though later revealed to have been caused by a misfired rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad toward Israel, the spread of the phrase in Arabic increased by 146%.
"The massive increase in antisemitic content and calls for violence against Israelis and Jews worldwide after October 7 is an unprecedented event," said CyberWall CEO Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor. "What is particularly worrisome is that so far we haven't heard a clear and organized plan from social media companies on how they intend to protect Israeli and Jewish users from the same inciting and violent content.”
“Will social media platforms continue to be a psychological tool easily exploited by Hamas, anti-Israelis, and antisemites? What resources and new technologies will social media companies invest in to ensure that psychological terror doesn’t continue to haunt and even incite violent incidents against Jews worldwide?” she added.
Tal-Or Cohen MontemayorPhoto: Hagar Bedar"Social media platforms should be among the first to answer the public’s worries at this time. If we continue to be indifferent to their role in shaping awareness and being used as an engine to fuel violence, global antisemitism, and hate crime against Israelis and Jews, these violent incidents will continue to become more prevalent."
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, failed to comment at the time of writing. As for X, which doesn’t usually respond to media inquiries since being acquired by Elon Musk, a standard automatic response was received: "We’re busy now, please try again later."