Ahead of Yom HaShoah, CyberWell Calls for Inclusion of October 7th in Violent Event Denial Policies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 20th, 2025

AHEAD OF YOM HASHOAH, CYBERWELL CALLS FOR INCLUSION OF OCTOBER 7TH IN VIOLENT EVENT DENIAL POLICIES

(Tel Aviv, Israel – April 20, 2025) – As Israel prepares to mark Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) on April 24, CyberWell, a tech-based nonprofit dedicated to monitoring and combating online antisemitism, is calling on social media platforms to strengthen their policies around denial of violent events—especially the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.

CyberWell’s 2024 Annual Report reveals three critical insights at the intersection of Holocaust remembrance and the present-day fight against antisemitism online:

1. Holocaust hate speech is steadily increasing online by 3% annually, indicating that historical antisemitism remains a persistent challenge on digital platforms.

2. Enforcement improves when platforms apply content moderation policies equally across languages. For example, CyberWell has routinely called out platforms for moderating and enforcing Holocaust denial policies at higherthan-average rates in English, but lower than average rates in Arabic for the same content and phrases, such as “Hitler was Right”. After consistently pointing out this disparity, in 2024 CyberWell’s data indicates that platforms significantly increased the removal of Holocaust denial and distortion posts in both languages, demonstrating the importance of applying equal moderation efforts across languages.

3. Clear, explicit policies around Holocaust denial—and now, October 7 denial—result in higher removal rates. Holocaust hate speech consistently is the best moderated form of antisemitism according to CyberWell’s data, largely because most platforms have clear and explicit policies denoting this content as prohibited. TikTok stands out as the first platform to recognize October 7th denial as prohibited content. This includes denial of atrocities such as rape and mass murder committed by Hamas during the attack and demonstrates that clear and explicit policies lead to more effective content moderation.

“Denialism is an historic tool used to erase Jewish suffering and spread antisemitism,” says Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor, founder and CEO of CyberWell. “What we’re witnessing now is a continuation of that same tactic being used to deny the atrocities of October 7. Platforms must act decisively and include these events in their policies to prevent the normalization of hate.”

CyberWell’s data—collected 16 months after the October 7 attack—shows widespread online distortion: • 33% of flagged posts falsely deny that Hamas committed atrocities, including rape. • 47% claim that Israel orchestrated or staged the massacre. • 10% suggest Israel benefited from the attack—a figure that has doubled since January 2024.

These narratives are further amplified by platform algorithms, making them difficult for users to identify as false and harmful.

CyberWell uses AI-powered monitoring to detect antisemitic trends across platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. The organization partners with social media companies to help them enforce their own hate speech policies and maintains a public-facing, open-source database to ensure transparency and accountability.

To access CyberWell’s full annual report or to arrange an interview with CEO Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor or a member of the research team, please contact us below. Media Contact: Email: [email protected] Website: https://www.cyberwell.org