X and Instagram account for 98% of views of antisemitic content in new study
An analysis of 2,806 posts found that the two platforms generated more than 1.1 billion views, while TikTok and Facebook recorded a fraction of the reach.
Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) and Meta’s Instagram are the leading distributors of antisemitic content among the four major social media platforms examined in a new study. The platforms expose users to such material even when they are not actively searching for it, and together account for 98% of all views of antisemitic posts, according to an extensive analysis by the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).
X accounted for the largest share of antisemitic posts identified in the study, with 72% of the total, consisting primarily of short-form text. On Instagram, short-form videos were more prevalent. Although the platform accounted for just 26% of the posts, it generated 44% of the views.
The findings also point to a significant difference in the performance of TikTok and Facebook. TikTok, which has previously faced criticism over the spread of anti-Jewish content, appears to have restricted the reach of such material more effectively. Facebook has also recorded far fewer widely viewed antisemitic posts than X and Instagram.
The study monitored 2,806 antisemitic posts published between August and October by 683 accounts. Each post had attracted at least 40,000 views. X accounted for 641 million views, followed by Instagram with 517.4 million. Across all four platforms, the researchers recorded 1.18 billion views, 98% of them on X and Instagram.
The most prevalent category involved familiar antisemitic conspiracy theories, including claims that Jews control the media, governments and the banking system. Such content accounted for 52% of views, or 514 million, according to the study.
Another 15% of the posts involved the dehumanization of Jews, including blood libels and comparisons of Jews to vermin. A further 12% targeted Israel and Zionists with dehumanizing content, while 9% involved Holocaust-related material, including denial and distortion of historical facts.
The researchers also identified content built around a claim that an attempted hijacking aboard a Flydubai flight had been staged by Israel. This narrative appeared in 9% of the posts.
Some of the most widely viewed material consisted of short antisemitic remarks. One post on X, for example, read: "Someone told me Jews have big noses because air is free" and attracted 1.4 million views. Another promoted a video titled "Hitler was a good guy, and f*** the Jews!" which received 433,300 views.
The study found that X and Instagram were responsible for the overwhelming majority of the content's reach. X accounted for 2,032 posts, or 72% of the total, which together generated 641 million views. The platform also extended the visibility of these posts well beyond the original accounts' followers.
Grok, X's AI chatbot, was also used to generate or amplify some of the material. According to the study, 13% of the posts across the platforms, accounting for 69.9 million views, were phrased as questions that tagged the chatbot.
Instagram, meanwhile, accounted for 26% of the posts but 44% of total views, with an average of 699,000 views per post, roughly twice the average on X. Short-form videos made up most of the content, and Instagram accounted for 79% of all shares tracked by the researchers. Of the 293 posts that attracted more than one million views, 52% appeared on Instagram.
The figures for TikTok and Facebook were markedly lower. Researchers identified only 13 TikTok posts that attracted more than 40,000 views, compared with 2,032 on X and 740 on Instagram. The 13 TikTok posts nevertheless averaged 1.3 million views each.
On Facebook, the researchers found just 21 antisemitic posts with more than 40,000 views. Together, they generated 6.5 million views. All were short-form videos published by just six accounts.
The study's findings suggest that antisemitic content on TikTok and Facebook reached a much smaller audience than on X and Instagram, although the researchers noted that both platforms had previously allowed extreme antisemitic material to circulate widely.
The concentration of activity was another notable finding. Of the 683 accounts monitored, 100 were responsible for 64.5% of all views, while just 10 accounts accounted for 19.6%. This suggests that the problem is concentrated among a relatively small number of users and that action against a limited group of accounts could significantly reduce the reach of antisemitic content.
