Three years ago today, on 7 October 2023, Hamas led a major terrorist attack in Israel, killing 1,195 people including 36 children, injuring many more, and committing the war crime of hostage taking. The Online Hate Prevention Institute remembers the victims, the survivors, the families of those killed and taken, and all those affected by the attack and its aftermath.

We have monitored and documented the sharp rise in online antisemitism following the October 7 attack. Detailed analysis can be seen in our past reports:

• Online Antisemitism Before October 7 provides a baseline before the rise.
• Online Antisemitism After October 7 reflects the sharp rise in the months that followed.
• Social Media and the Normalisation of Hate: October 7 Two Years On reflects the long term trend and the creation of a new far more antisemitic normal. 

On Thursday 15 October, we will publish our new report examining three years of trends in online antisemitism since 7 October 2023. The report draws on OHPI’s data from the past three years as we monitored antisemitism across 10 (and more recently 11) different social media platforms. The report places those findings in the context of our earlier work. Consistent with our previous reports, our newest data shows a massive and sustained increase in overall antisemitism on social media since the October 7 attacks. 

The report also examines how different forms of antisemitism have changed over time, using the major categories of antisemitism as applied in OHPI’s monitoring.

Our new report will look in more detail at trends across individual platforms and at changes in the specific forms antisemitism is taking on those platforms. Three years on, continued monitoring remains essential to understanding how online antisemitism is evolving, where it is being normalised, and how it is spread.

Today is a day for remembering the victims of the Hamas atrocities on October 7, 2023. We are dismayed at those who have sought to use today to protest, to seek to push the victims of Hamas terror out of sight and memory. Their aim is to focus media attention away from Jewish victims, and away from Hamas responsibility. Their aim is to make the false narratives they promote more dominant, and the facts and recent history less relevant. Such efforts to erase and mock Jewish suffering is also a feature of our new report and it is how hate targeting Jews is being normalised. 

The abuse of today is leaving many in the Jewish community feeling sick. October 7 denial and distortion is rising and functions in a very similar manner to Holocaust denial and distortion. Like Holocaust denial and distortion, it aims to take a horrific past and make it once again repeatable. It takes people of good will to stand up against this, and many have. Those who support the minimization and distortion of October 7 ought to be ashamed. That is not political advocacy, it is not pro-Palestinian advocacy, it is simply bigotry. Such a position asserts that some people’s lives, like the 36 children killed, are worth less and should be denied recognition. 

Our full report will be out on October 15th.