A new report by the Fighting Online Antisemitism movement, cited by the British newspaper The Telegraph, reveals how thousands of coordinated fake accounts, apparently operated by Iran, have targeted survivors of the Nova festival massacre.
According to the report, the survivors are facing an “ongoing, multi-layered digital campaign,” while social media platforms are failing to remove abusive posts, comments and videos. What may have initially been promoted by bots has gained momentum and is now being spread by real users as well, the report said.
Footage from the abduction of Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or
The report’s authors said the coordinated campaign is intended to erase, distort and justify the October 7 massacre, not only by challenging the facts of the attack but also by attacking the survivors themselves.
The report pointed to social media posts calling for survivors to die, denying their testimonies and describing them with racist, sexist and abusive slurs.
“The phenomenon ranges from outright denial, claiming the attack was a staged event involving ‘crisis actors’ and fake blood, to posts and comments shifting blame to the IDF,” the report said.
According to the authors, X has become a “hub” for false-flag claims and viral conspiracy theories. TikTok, they wrote, is “saturated with harassment of survivors, antisemitic memes and videos that exploit popular trends to spread hateful messages or mock civilian suffering.”
Many survivors, including some who were held hostage in the Gaza Strip, have been personally targeted.
The report specifically cited the case of Noa Argamani, whose abduction video alongside her partner Avinatan Or drew global attention. The two were held separately in Gaza, without knowing what had happened to each other. Argamani was freed after 245 days in an Israeli military operation, while Or was released in the latest hostage deal after two years in captivity.
Despite what she endured, the report showed how Argamani was labeled online as a “terrorist” and a “whore.”
Omri Sasi
(Photo: Roi Rubinstein)
The denial of sexual violence committed by terrorists is also widespread, the report’s authors said. Romi Gonen, who was kidnapped from the Nova festival, spoke after her release about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her captors. Since then, she too has been targeted by online attacks.
‘I saw the most horrible things’
The Telegraph’s article on the report included testimony from Omri Sasi, one of the producers of the Nova festival, who lost friends and relatives in the massacre. Since then, the report said, he has been receiving weekly psychological treatment.
“It is not easy,” he told the newspaper, recalling some of the horrors he witnessed. “They started kidnapping people to Gaza, and if someone did not want to come, they killed him immediately, and then burned all the cars that were stuck on the road.”
“I saw them firing RPGs and throwing grenades at every car with people inside,” he said. “I was with a group of people and we ran. They fired machine guns and some of the people next to me fell. I saw the most horrible things.”
Sasi said the abuse survivors have faced since then, as well as the volume of denial and false information, have deepened his trauma. In response, he produced an exhibition in London about the Nova festival.
“This is our counterstrike. I cannot control these people,” he said of the online attackers. “They can write whatever they want. I know the truth. I organized the festival. I lost family members there. I invite anyone who thinks what happened is not real, or that Israel staged this festival to start a war, to come and see how wrong they are.”
The report’s authors said content that “explicitly violates terms of service, including calls for violence, routinely remains online even after being reported by other users.” They urged social media companies to act faster and called on governments to demand accountability from the platforms.
“The survivors are harmed twice,” the report said. “The harassment documented here is not abstract. Identified individuals, including hostages and their families, are subjected to ongoing campaigns of abuse that intensify the trauma of October 7 itself.”
Tomer Aldubi, founder and CEO of FOA, told The Telegraph that “antisemitism and extreme hatred against Jews, Zionists and Israelis have spread around the world at a dizzying pace since October 7. We must not give up or remain silent.”
The newspaper said the only social media platform that agreed to respond to the report’s findings was TikTok. The company said it has strict rules against antisemitism and does not allow the promotion of hate speech, hateful behavior or hateful ideologies.
TikTok added that covert influence operations that seek to mislead and manipulate public opinion are strictly prohibited, and said the company uses advanced technology and expert teams to detect them and ensure their removal.