TEL AVIV — Nearly a month after the deadly attack at Bondi Beach in Australia, CyberWell, a tech-driven nonprofit and a Trusted Partner of Meta, TikTok and YouTube, reported that online reactions followed a now-familiar pattern of antisemitic hate, glorification of violence and conspiracy theories blaming Jews for their own victimization.
CyberWell said it analyzed a sample of 164 pieces of content that generated more than 8.1 million views and over 255,000 interactions across social platforms. The organization emphasized that the sample represents only a portion of the broader online discourse but reflects recurring trends seen after antisemitic attacks since Oct. 7. These include synagogue arsons in Australia, violent incidents in Europe and physical assaults on Jews in the United States.
According to CyberWell, social media quickly became “an arena where violence was justified, normalized, or redirected toward victims through conspiracy narratives.” The group’s CEO, Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor, warned that these narratives deliberately seek to erase empathy for Jewish victims.
“This discourse attempts to quickly erase any acknowledgement of Jews as victims of violence,” Cohen Montemayor stated. “What we observed after the Bondi Beach attack lays the groundwork for the next attack—by dehumanizing Jews and justifying further violence.”
Patterns of Hate and Conspiracy
The organization reported that many posts celebrated the killing of Jewish victims or praised the attacker as a hero. Others falsely framed the incident as retaliation against Israel or justified the violence based solely on the victims’ Jewish identity.
One Arabic-language post compared the Bondi Beach attack to the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, glorifying those who “murder Jews generation after generation.”
CyberWell also documented several conspiracy theories that shifted blame away from the perpetrator. These included baseless claims of Israeli government involvement, fabricated Google Trends data purporting to show foreknowledge of the attack, and fake accounts like one under the name “David Cohen” portraying the terrorist as a former IDF soldier.
“When violence against Jews is justified or reframed through conspiracy narratives meant to shift the blame from perpetrators to victims, the harm does not end with the physical attack,” Cohen Montemayor said. “It strips victims of empathy and normalizes further violence.”
Real Users Amplifying Hate
In its findings, CyberWell highlighted a concerning change in how antisemitic content spreads online. Rather than being driven primarily by bots or coordinated campaigns, this recent surge was largely amplified by real users, sometimes elevated through influencers and recommendation algorithms that promote high-engagement material.
“Post-attack glorification of violence and conspiracy-driven victim blaming are indicators of broader societal risk,” Cohen Montemayor warned. “Platforms should leverage community standards, Trust and Safety mechanisms, and generative AI to counter these dangerous narratives.”
Monitoring Antisemitism Worldwide
CyberWell operates globally to monitor and counter online antisemitism in real time. Its proprietary AI scans English and Arabic-language content across major platforms for material promoting hate, Holocaust denial, or violence against Jews, using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
The organization’s human analysts review flagged content and report it to platform moderators while maintaining an open database of verified antisemitic posts to promote transparency.
Through its partnerships, CyberWell aims to help social media companies enforce their community standards more effectively and identify harmful patterns before they lead to real-world incidents of violence.
For more information, visit https://cyberwell.org.
