A new feature on Facebook allows users to upload anti-Israel and antisemitic animated images to their profiles.

The images - or GIFs - come from the GIF supplier Giphy.com, who also supply their GIFs directly to the Facebook Messenger app.

Users can search for any term on Giphy to find animated images uploaded by other users. A search for the term “Israel” earlier this week revealed an animated Star of David crashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, reflecting an anti-Israel conspiracy theory that Israel was behind 9/11.

Searches for the term “Jew” and “Zionist” also reveal offensive and sometimes apparently irrelevant GIFs.

A Facebook spokesperson said that there was nothing the site could do about these images, as they are treated in the same way as a link, rather than content on a profile.

“If it were a Facebook profile that featured anti-Semitic or racist content that violated the Facebook terms of use, then we could take the profile down, as we have done many times,” they said. “In this case, however, the content is posted not to Facebook, but on another site.”

A Giphy representative said: “Giphy’s goal has always been to be a safe and fun place to explore all the GIFs on the internet but, every once in a while, an offensive GIF will sneak through the cracks. These GIFs are not endorsed or promoted by Giphy in the least,” the company’s email said.