CyberWell reports dramatic rise in Oct. 7 denial moderation rates across social media

TEL AVIV – Nearly a year after Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel and the Jewish community, live-streaming its acts of violence and subsequently denying them, CyberWell, an independent nonprofit focused on combating online antisemitism, has observed a notable increase in moderation and removal efforts targeting posts denying Hamas’s attack by major social media platforms. In data compiled 90 days after the attack, CyberWell noted an 8.91 percent moderation rate, whereas the current dataset demonstrates enforcement rates of almost 42 percent.

“October 7 was the largest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust, and denial of these events is akin to modern Holocaust denial,” said CyberWell Founder and Executive Director Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor. “While we appreciate the platforms for enhancing their moderation efforts, and some, like TikTok, even clarifying that Oct. 7 denial content violates existing policies, much of these efforts occurred after these hateful, violent, and incorrect posts spread and garnered hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of views. Once individuals have been exposed to such content, it leaves a lasting imprint. With the global rise in antisemitic incidents, it is evident that online normalization of antisemitism and the dehumanization of Jews is influencing attacks worldwide.”

CyberWell analyzed a sample of 500 posts related to Hamas’s actions and found that moderation efforts have improved markedly since the initial research was done in late 2023 and January of 2024.

Before their removal, the analyzed content garnered substantial view counts across platforms. Posts on X (formerly Twitter) had the highest engagement, reaching an astonishing 19,100,000 views, followed by Facebook with 2,136,841 views. YouTube posts accumulated 2,704,419 views, largely driven by one video that alone attracted 1,293,292 views. Instagram posts received 799,719 views, while TikTok posts totaled 638,086 views.

TikTok leads in removal rates, taking down 71.19 percent of flagged content, while YouTube had the lowest rate at just 11.43 percent. Facebook and Instagram had removal rates of 33.72 percent and 34.21 percent, respectively, and X (formerly Twitter) removed 56.38 percent of flagged content.

Within the posts denying the events of Oct. 7, which accounted for 91 percent of antisemitic posts in this dataset related to Oct. 7, CyberWell’s research noted three predominant narratives:

• Claims that Israel committed the attacks against its own citizens (42.2 percent of posts, an increase from 36.7 percent reported in the previous study)
• Denial that Hamas militants and their allies committed sexual assault (33 percent of the posts, a slight decrease from 38.66 percent previously)
• That Israel benefits from the attack (9.4 percent, up from 5.11 percent).

“Many of these posts were crafted specifically to incite people to target Jews based on age-old antisemitic tropes such as blood libel and Jews being inherently evil, greedy, and liars. Some false claims led to clear spikes in trending online Jew-hatred. For example, the Oct. 17 explosion in the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital courtyard was caused by a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch, but initially blamed on Israel via social media and then inaccurately amplified by leading traditional media outlets. Despite it being disproven, the online presence of this lie led to a surge in content praising Hitler and calling for death to Jews, including a 1,600 percent spike in use of the hashtag Hitler was right. To this day this disinformation campaign continues to resonate as clarion calls for those who seek to target the Jewish community worldwide,” she added.

CyberWell is an international, tech-rooted nonprofit combatting the spread of antisemitism online. Its AI technologies monitor social media in English and Arabic for posts that promulgate antisemitism, Holocaust denial and promote violence against Jews. Its analysts review and report this content to platform moderators while indexing all verified posts in the first-ever open database of antisemitic social media posts – democratically cataloging it for transparency. Through partnerships, education, and real-time alerts, CyberWell is influencing social media platforms to take proactive steps against online Jew-hate