Eurovision Was Meant to Unite Through Music. Instead, It Became Another Flashpoint for Online Antisemitism
For nearly seven decades, the Eurovision Song Contest has branded itself as a celebration of culture, creativity, and unity through music. But in recent years, and especially following October 7, 2023, the contest has increasingly become a flashpoint for online abuse, harassment, and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
According to CyberWell’s 2024 Annual Report, antisemitic rhetoric online surged dramatically following the October 7 Hamas attacks, with a documented 36% increase in online Jew-hatred over the subsequent eleven months. More alarmingly, CyberWell identified a doubling in explicit calls for violence against Jews, rising from 5.1% to 13.3% of vetted antisemitic discourse.
Against this backdrop of escalating online antisemitism, major cultural events have increasingly become vehicles for the spread of anti-Jewish narratives. CyberWell refers to this phenomenon as “event-driven antisemitism”: the exploitation of breaking news, cultural moments, and geopolitical developments to amplify conspiracy theories, dehumanization, and incitement targeting Jews.
Eurovision has emerged as one of the clearest examples of this trend. CyberWell’s analysis of Eurovision-related discourse over the years identified recurring antisemitic narratives, including allegations of “Jewish control” over the competition, conspiracy theories about voting outcomes, and targeted online harassment of Jewish and Israeli participants.
CyberWell’s latest analysis, conducted in the aftermath of the Eurovision 2026 finals in which Israel finished in second place, found that these patterns have persisted. Analysts identified dozens of English-language antisemitic posts across X, TikTok, and Facebook containing both classic antisemitic tropes and Israel-related antisemitism. Broadly, the dominant narratives on X centered on classic antisemitic tropes, while on TikTok and Facebook, the content centered more on Israel-related antisemitism. While the dominant narratives varied by platform, the underlying themes remained strikingly consistent: conspiracy theories about Jewish influence, allegations that Jews manipulate institutions and public outcomes, delegitimization of Israel’s existence, and dehumanizing rhetoric directed at Jews and Israelis.
The findings suggest that Eurovision’s immense global audience and highly engaged online communities create fertile ground for antisemitic narratives to emerge and spread. As public attention intensifies around the contest, online discussions relating to music and competition can quickly become vehicles for broader forms of Jew-hatred.
When Cultural Events Become Targets
The 2024 Eurovision contest in Malmo, Sweden (the first Eurovision contest after the October 7th, 2023 massacre), marked a clear intensification of tensions surrounding Israel’s participation. The event was accompanied by protests, widespread demonstrations, artist harassment, and online intimidation campaigns including death threats targeting Israeli singer Eden Golan, as reported by Eurovision and in multiple news outlets. Similar hate was aimed at Noa Kirel during the 2023 Eurovision contest and Yuval Rafael in 2025.
CyberWell’s research shows that online conversation around cultural events frequently crosses into familiar antisemitic patterns including collective blame, conspiracy theories about Jewish power, and dehumanizing narratives directed at Jews and Israelis more broadly.
This distinction is critical. CyberWell’s monitoring has consistently documented how rapidly geopolitical flashpoints and cultural controversies can give rise to narratives that depict Jews as orchestrating global events or manipulating the media. These are not new ideas; they are longstanding antisemitic conspiracies that have been repackaged and amplified within the modern digital town square.
CyberWell’s post-Eurovision 2026 dataset illustrates how these narratives morph during major cultural events. The most common antisemitic content identified on X centered on classic conspiracy theories alleging that Jews manipulate Eurovision voting outcomes or otherwise “control” the competition. In many cases, these claims expanded beyond the contest itself, serving as a gateway to broader allegations that Jews control the media, financial systems, governments, or other societal institutions. Such narratives mirror longstanding antisemitic myths about collective Jewish power and influence that have circulated for generations.
Other posts took a different approach, celebrating Israel’s failure to win the competition while employing explicitly anti-Jewish insults and dehumanizing language. These posts framed the Israeli contestant’s loss as desirable because Jews had not prevailed. This type of rhetoric reflects a broader pattern in which cultural events become opportunities to normalize anti-Jewish hostility under the guise of political critique or entertainment discourse.
This content relates to the second example of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, which is defined as:
“Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective – such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”
Eurovision’s large-scale global audience and real-time digital engagement make it especially susceptible to this dynamic. Millions of users participate in live commentary across platforms such as X, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, creating conditions in which harassment and hateful narratives can escalate and spread rapidly.
Online Hate Does Not Stay Online
One of CyberWell’s core findings is that online antisemitism cannot be dismissed as “just speech on the internet.” The organization has repeatedly warned that digital hate normalizes extremism and contributes to real-world hostility and violence against Jewish communities.
The hostility surrounding Eurovision demonstrates how quickly cultural participation can become politicized for Jews and Israelis online. In 2026, Israel was represented by Noam Bettan with the song “Michelle” at Eurovision in Vienna. Reuters reported that during his semi-final performance, he was met with some boos and pro-Palestinian chants from a small group of demonstrators, alongside broader protests and political tensions surrounding Israel’s participation; national broadcasters from five countries boycotted Eurovision due to Israel’s inclusion.
At the same time, social media users and fan communities debated whether harassment directed at artists was justified collateral damage in political activism.
CyberWell also documented the widespread use of terms such as “Isnotreal” and “Israhell” across Eurovision-related discussions. While often presented as casual political slogans, these phrases carry distinct antisemitic implications. “Isnotreal” functions as a rejection of Israel’s legitimacy and the Jewish right to self-determination, while “Israhell” portrays Israel as uniquely evil and inherently malevolent, and applies demonizing rhetoric to the Jewish state and its citizens.
“Isnotreal” relates to the seventh example of the IHRA Working Definition, which is defined as:
“Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
The prevalence of these narratives across multiple platforms demonstrates how quickly antisemitic rhetoric can become embedded in mainstream online conversations. What begins as discussion of a song contest can rapidly devolve into the repetition of conspiracy theories, dehumanizing stereotypes, and exclusionary narratives directed at Jews and Israelis.
This normalization of abuse is part of the broader challenge.
When antisemitic rhetoric becomes embedded in mainstream online conversations around entertainment, sports, or popular culture, it lowers the threshold for hate speech to spread unchecked.
The Responsibility of Platforms
CyberWell’s work has increasingly focused not only on identifying antisemitic content, but also on improving platform accountability.
The organization has partnered with major technology companies including Meta and TikTok to improve moderation policies and enforcement systems. In 2024, both companies formally recognized that the term “Zionist” can function as a proxy for “Jew” or “Israeli” in hateful and dehumanizing contexts; a significant policy development informed in part by CyberWell’s research and reporting.
But major gaps remain.
CyberWell’s reporting shows that enforcement of antisemitism policies is still inconsistent across platforms, languages, and contexts. Event-driven surges, like those surrounding Eurovision, often overwhelm moderation systems before harmful narratives can be contained.
As global audiences continue to gather online around major cultural events, the question is no longer whether antisemitism will appear in those conversations. The question is whether platforms, lawmakers or other decision makers will respond quickly enough to prevent hate from becoming normalized.
“United By Music” Requires More Than a Slogan
Eurovision’s slogan, “United By Music,” reflects an aspirational vision of cultural connection across borders and identities. Yet unity becomes difficult to sustain when participation itself is politicized, and when harassment, conspiracy theories, and antisemitic abuse are normalized in digital discourse.
Combatting this trend requires more than reactive moderation after controversies erupt. It demands sustained transparency from platforms, stronger enforcement of hate speech policies, and recognition that antisemitism is not confined to extremist spaces. This hatred is seemingly increasingly embedded in mainstream digital culture…
illustrating that when a song contest becomes a vehicle for exclusion campaigns alongside antisemitic narratives, the urgency of addressing this reality becomes undeniable.
