Survivors of the Nova music festival massacre on October 7 have been targeted by a coordinated wave of online abuse linked to Iran, according to a new report.
A “sustained and multi-layered digital campaign” has subjected former hostages, families of those who were murdered and others who lived through the atrocity to an astonishing volume of vile hateful abuse, according to Fighting Online Anti-Semitism (FOA).
The report warns: “Survivors are being harmed twice,” adding: “Named individuals, including hostages and their families, are subjected to sustained campaigns of abuse that compound the trauma of October 7 itself.”
Researchers of the report due to be published in the next few days say the campaign seeks to not only deny and distort the massacre but also to terrorise survivors and the bereaved.
Hamas terrorists murdered 364 people at the festival, while dozens more were taken hostage or injured.
The report documents thousands of posts, allegedly from fake accounts linked to Tehran, that call for survivors to be killed, accusations that they fabricated their experiences, and racist and antisemitic abuse.
Researchers say conspiracy theories emerged and thrived immediately after October 7, including false claims that the IDF killed Israel civilians on purpose to justify military action in Gaza and widespread denial of sexual violence occurring on the day.
“The phenomenon ranges from complete denial – claiming the attack was a staged event involving ‘crisis actors’ and fake blood – to posts and comments that shift blame onto the IDF,” the report states, which was first shared with The Telegraph.
Former hostages have been a particular target for the torrent of online abuse.
Researchers found different patterns of abuse across different platforms. X is described as a “hub for ‘false flag’ claims and vital conspiracies” while TikTok is “saturated with harassment of survivors, antisemitic memes, and videos that exploit popular trends to spread hate messages or mock the suffering of civilians”.
A callous narrative of “victim blaming” was found across platforms. One online user posted: “I don’t feel sorry for people who think it’s normal to party next to an open-air prison camp full of kids.”
FOA believes the online campaign mirrors long-established Iranian efforts to spread disinformation through state-backed cyber operations. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly been accused by Western intelligence agencies of deploying bot networks designed to inflame political divisions abroad.
The report states that while much of the content appears to originate from coordinated bot networks, the narratives are increasingly being amplified by genuine users.
FOA says social media companies are failing to enforce their own policies despite repeated reports of content that appears to breach platform rules, including explicit calls for violence.
Tomer Aldubi, founder and executive director of FOA, told The Telegraph: “While we are successfully removing extremist content through close cooperation with social media platforms, anti-Semitism and extreme hatred against Jews, Zionists and Israelis have spread internationally at a dizzying pace since October 7. We must not give up or be silent.”
TikTok told The Telegraph it had strict policies prohibiting antisemitism, hate speech and coordinated influence operations, adding that specialist teams and automated systems were used to detect and remove such content.
The JC has contacted X for comment.
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