Decoding Antisemitism An AI-driven Study on Hate Speech & Imagery Online Sixth Discourse Report

Key Findings:

This report examines antisemitic discourse online during an extraordinarily tumultuous time. The Hamas attacks of 7 October and the subsequent Israeli military response in Gaza generated a huge level of online discussion as well as incitement, unprecedented in the project’s timeframe, even in politically moderate contexts. The report shares findings from an analysis of over 19,500 comments posted online in the UK, France and Germany since the attacks, with an additional 6,000 comments presented in a six-country comparative study. 

Antisemitic content posted in the first week following the attacks (7–13 October) represents a turning point in antisemitic online communication, characterised by open celebration and affirmation of violence inflicted on Israeli civilians by Hamas.1 In the UK corpus, on average 27% of antisemitic comments affirmed the attacks; in the French data, it was a staggering 55%. By contrast, the German corpora prominently featured the antisemitic concept of israel’s sole guilt for the conflict (29.6% of all antisemitic comments), pinning responsibil- ity for the 7 October attacks on Israel itself. 

To get a better sense of the novelty of these immediate reactions, the researchers compared them to their previous analysis. While the overall antisemitism levels remained similar, a much wider range of antisemitic concepts was employed in the 2021 corpus. One reason for this may be a rise in social acceptance of antisemitic expression online between the two events, reducing the need to use a variety of stereotypes or analogies to demonise – or justify action against – Israel. In the 2023 corpus, expressions of antisemitic resentment appear to be more overtly stated. 

In the subsequent phase of the 2023 conflict (13–31 October), by which time the Israeli military response in Gaza had become the centre of media attention, the pattern of antisemitic discourse gradually reverted to that seen in previous escalation phases in the Middle East. Across all three language communities, claims that Israel was evil, a terrorist state or genocidal, various forms of the Nazi analogy, as well as notions of Jewish power and influence, replaced the prior affirmation of violence as the top concept. 

Throughout the aftermath of the Hamas attacks, Instagram played a crucial role in the online discourse, particularly amongst younger web users. Analysis of responses to posts by both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian Instagram influencers revealed that the most frequent antisemitic ideas were claims that Israel is inherently evil, is committing genocide and has no right to exist. These were often entangled in conspiratorial narratives pointing to supposed Jewish political or economic power and influence. 

Analysis of 2,000 social media comments related to Elon Musk’s controversial statements throughout 2023 highlighted the phenomena of affirmation and denial of antisemitism, here triggered by the use of classical tropes of evil and conspiracy by influential public figures. 

For the first time, the project expanded its focus to other language communities, examining web user responses to 7 October in Italy, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Morocco. This analysis provided a glimpse into the distinct discourses of each language community: from a notably high level of antisemitic slurs in the Romanian corpus to the prominence of conspiracy theories in the Polish data. 

As demonstrated by the researchers’ work on the AI-based Step 2, automated detection of antisemitic content online continues to pose significant challenges and reaffirm the importance of contextuality. Even state-of-the-art models like ChatGPT, which have processed vast portions of the internet, encounter substantial difficulties. A reconsideration of the approach and examination of entire discussion threads might improve the current results. 

As part of the quantitatively oriented Step 3 of the project, the researchers developed an interactive data visualisation, accessible on their homepage. Using these tools, various discourse events can be compared in detail, allowing users to inspect the frequencies and co-occurrences of text specific antisemitic keywords.