2025 Canadian Election Rhetoric Tainted by Antisemitism

An analysis of antisemitic rhetoric circulating on social media leading up to Canada’s federal election on April 28, 2025, revealed a troubling trend in hate-based narratives. CyberWell identified a number of antisemitic conspiratorial themes permeating online election dialogue and frequently referencing the two main Prime Ministerial candidates:

• Mark Carney, Prime Minister and head of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC)
• Pierre Poilievre, the Opposition Leader and head of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC)

Specific Jewish individuals affiliated with the CPC and LPC were also targeted with hateful rhetoric, including MP Melissa Lantsman of the Conservative Party and Rachel Bendayan of the Liberal Party, who also currently serves as Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

These findings highlight the ongoing presence of antisemitic sentiment in online political discourse, particularly during moments of national visibility such as a federal election.

Main Narratives

CyberWell identified five key antisemitic narratives in relation to the Canadian elections. These narratives drew on classic antisemitic tropes, conspiracy theories, or hateful language—often directed at Jewish politicians or framed as claims of negative Jewish influence over the elections.

The five most common narratives include:

1. World Domination/Control: Claims in which Jews allegedly control Canada’s government, political parties, or that candidates are “puppets” of Jewish interests. This includes references to ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government), which is a theory that antisemites use to allege that Jews control Western politics. This narrative emerged as the most prominent theme in the dataset, reflecting the strong presence of IHRA’s Example 2 (described below).

2.  Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories: Allegations in which the Rothschild family controls the candidates or that Jeffrey Epstein is linked to Jewish political influence and sexual blackmail in Canada.

3. Other Classic Antisemitic Tropes: This includes the use of antisemitic canards such as blood libel, the Khazar myth, and accusations in which Jews are “fake” or inherently dangerous.

4. Israel-Related Antisemitism – Israeli control and Holocaust trivialization: Claims that Israel controls Canadian politicians or comparisons between Israel’s policies to that of Nazi Germany, including claiming that Israel is committing a “Holocaust” amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

5. Targeting of Jewish Politicians: Attacks on Melissa Lantsman and Rachel Bendayan, including references to their Jewish identity, appearance, or sexual orientation.

Examples of posts from the dataset are shown further down in this blog. Scroll down to “Breaking Down the 5 Narratives” to see how these themes appeared online.

Methodology

Between August 26, 2024, and April 17, 2025, CyberWell’s AI technology flagged 618 pieces of content in English across Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, X, and YouTube with a high probability of being antisemitic and that contained Canadian election related key words. From this dataset, CyberWell selected a sample for review and confirmed a total of 86 posts to contain antisemitic content.

CyberWell uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, a consensus definition which includes 11 specific examples, as a primary tool for discourse analysis in identifying antisemitic rhetoric online.

Antisemitism Across Social Media

Out of the 86 posts confirmed as antisemitic, the breakdown by platform is as follows:

• Facebook: 16.3%
• Instagram: 4.6%
• TikTok: 3.5%
• X: 72.1%
• YouTube: 3.5%

Given these figures, X emerged as the most dominant platform for election-related antisemitic content in this dataset.

Views & Engagement

The 86 antisemitic posts also garnered notable traction across social media platforms. According to social listening tools that CyberWell utilizes, these 86 pieces of content alone gained over 65,663 views,[1] while reaching an engagement rate of 5,312.[2]

Removal Rates

Only 22% of the posts from this dataset were removed after being reported directly to the platforms by CyberWell. This number constitutes a significant drop compared to CyberWell’s 2024 annual report, in which an average removal rate of 50% across platforms was recorded.

Removal Rates per Platform

• Meta (Facebook and Instagram): 72%[3]
• TikTok: 67%
• X: 22%
• YouTube: 0%

Note: It is important to acknowledge that YouTube represented the fewest posts—only three— in this dataset. Given the low number, the platform may be successful in removing election-related hate speech efficiently. Additionally, out of the three antisemitic YouTube posts collected in this dataset, only one example violated YouTube’s community guidelines. Therefore, despite YouTube’s 0% removal rate, it is possible that the platform’s approach to enforcing its policies may be effective.

Most Prevalent Antisemitic Claims

According to IHRA

The most frequently observed narrative in this dataset corresponds with the second example of IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism:

“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.”

Example 2 appeared in 95% of all posts in this dataset.

This is a significant finding, underscoring that the vast majority of antisemitic content identified in this dataset was rooted in themes of Jewish world domination or control. Importantly, Example 2 represents the core of all social media platforms’ hate speech policies—generalizations and tropes directed at a “protected group”, which includes religious affiliation or belief. As such, it is reasonable to expect strong enforcement against this type of content. In practice, however, enforcement of election-related hate speech, though policy violating, appears to be significantly lower than typical enforcement rates.

It is important to emphasize that a single social media post can often reflect multiple IHRA categories simultaneously. For instance, the post below includes example 2 (Jewish control), example 7 (denying Jews the right to self-determination), and example 10 (drawing comparisons between Israeli policy and that of the Nazis):

In the tweet above, the user promotes extreme antisemitic rhetoric. The user accuses Poilievre of supporting genocide and frames him as a submissive agent of Jewish and Israeli interests. Specifically, the phrase “Nazi fascist Zionist police State” conflates Israel with Nazism. One attached image compares Israel’s policies to those of Nazi Germany. Additionally, the image on the bottom left contrasts “Judaism” with “Zionism” by placing a Hasidic Jew next to a grotesque pig bearing a Star of David and labeled “Kosher Pork” and “’Jewish’ State of Israel”. The quotation marks around “Jewish” represent the denial of the Jewish right to self-determination. The image of a pig—an antisemitic motif associated with filth and religious defilement—intensifies the attack. Together, the tweet and its imagery promote a conspiratorial and hateful worldview in which Jews and Israelis are framed as genocidal, subhuman, and in control of Canadian political leaders.

Breaking Down the 5 Narratives

World Domination/Control

The narrative that Jews secretly control Canadian politics was the most dominant in the dataset with 72% including this theme. For example, the term “puppet” was found in a number of posts and commonly linked to the broader narrative of Jewish control.

In the example below—removed after CyberWell reported it to Meta—the user insinuates that Jews control Canada’s political parties, implying that voters are ultimately left without a genuine choice.

Conspiracy Theories: Epstein & the Rothschilds

Antisemitic conspiracy theories also centered around Jeffrey Epstein and the Rothschild family, with Mark Carney being the primary target. Some posts accused the Rothschilds of funding or exerting control over Carney, while others referenced Epstein’s Island to suggest sexual exploitation and blackmail involving Jewish elites.

Classic Antisemitic Tropes

A number of posts featured well-known antisemitic myths and slurs. The X example below includes the phrase “Synagogue of Satan”, which is frequently used in antisemitic discourse to refer to Jews. The phrase itself is from the New Testament and depicts Jews as evil or spiritually illegitimate within religious antisemitism. It has been popularized by some celebrities, such as Ye (Kanye West), and groups that spread the Black Hebrew Israelite theory.

Israel-Related Antisemitism: Israeli Control & Holocaust Trivialization

Some posts accused Israel of controlling Canadian leaders, often in the context of criticism around the Israel-Hamas conflict. Some further included Holocaust trivialization, comparing the ongoing war to that of the genocide of six million Jews during World War II.

The TikTok post below portrays offensive generalization and Holocaust trivialization:

The Instagram post below implies that Western political leaders are controlled by Israel and Jews:

Targeting of Jewish Politicians: Melissa Lantsman & Rachel Bendayan

Several posts singled out Melissa Lantsman (CPC) and Rachel Bendayan (LPC), often using their Jewish identity, appearance, or sexual orientation as a point of attack.

Community Standards & Platform Policies

The five platforms analyzed in this dataset—Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube—all maintain community guidelines that prohibit various forms of hate speech, including antisemitism.

However, when it comes to election related hate-speech, X seems to have adopted a permissive approach. It could be that X has made the decision to allow antisemitic content on the platform when referring to politicians or politics, or it could simply be that X’s Hateful Conduct policy is not strictly enforced, either generally speaking or when related to elections or politics specifically. This is in line with CyberWell’s findings where, not only did X host the majority of the posts (72%) in the dataset, but also it had a very low removal rate at just 22%.

TikTok and Meta showed relatively consistent enforcement, as reflected in their removal rates of 67% and 72%, respectively. This reflects a more moderate approach regarding policy enforcement.

Unlike X, these platforms do not have specific clauses regarding elections in their policies. However, the concept is also not directly excluded from their policies. While the enforcement of their hate speech policies when related to elections seems to be moderately reasonable, having a specific clause for election-related content would prove more effective. This is especially true considering CyberWell’s observations in past antisemitic topics. It is also worth noting that CyberWell is a trusted partner of TikTok and Meta, which may support stronger response mechanisms for the removal of antisemitic content.

Lastly, contrary to the above platforms, YouTube is the only platform with an explicit approach to election-related hate speech and which includes a policy related to elections and civic integrity.

This policy explicitly states that different forms of hate speech and harassment are prohibited on the YouTube platform.

This also aligns with the dataset reflected here, where YouTube had the lowest number of posts (3.5%).

Although the removal rate was 0%, only one out of the three antisemitic examples violated YouTube’s community guidelines.

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Footnotes

[1] For Facebook and Instagram this metric is available only for videos/reels. Since this dataset includes textual posts only from Meta, the views metrics are not calculated for Meta platforms.

[2] Total engagement is calculated as a sum of likes, shares, and comments of all posts in the dataset per platform. For X, the number also includes retweets.

[3] Facebook and Instagram have been grouped under Meta to better evaluate how they handle election-related hate speech and antisemitism across their platforms. As such, Meta’s approach to the elections is treated as applicable to both Facebook and Instagram, allowing CyberWell to examine the interaction between removal rates and platform policies.

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Appendix

Below are some additional examples from the dataset:

1. World Domination/ Control

1.1 The following Instagram post includes multiple images. The images below promote the ZOG conspiracy, falsely claiming that Canadian politicians, such as former Prime Minister Trudeau and Poilievre, are controlled by Jews. Another image includes dozens of Canadian politicians’ headshots arranged around a large Star of David, alongside the slogans “Am Israel Chai” and “Bring It Home”, insinuating that they serve Israel or Jewish interests.

1.2 This tweet expresses antisemitic views by suggesting that Jews secretly control Canadian politics. The Yiddish phrase “oy vey” and the reference to “the nose” emoji further signals Jews in a derogatory way. Specifically, “it’s in the nose” evokes an antisemitic stereotype that Jews can be identified by large or distinct noses, a trope frequently used to mock or dehumanize Jews.

2. Conspiracy Theories: Epstein & Rothschilds

In the tweet below, the user promotes antisemitic themes by portraying Canadian political figure Mark Carney as a servant of Jewish power. Referring to “Jew terrorists” in government positions furthers the claim that Jews control Canadian politics and frames them as violent threats. Additionally, the term “Epstein Islander rapist” invokes conspiratorial associations with Jeffrey Epstein, who is often used as a symbol in antisemitic narratives about elite Jewish control and pedophilia.

3. Classic Antisemitic Tropes

The following Facebook posts combines multiple antisemitic conspiracy theories to target Carney and the Jewish people. The user employs the Khazar myth, sexual deviancy, and also implies that Jews are satanic and are associated with Freemasonry. Freemasonry is often portrayed as a shadowy, global power structure, infiltrated and controlled by Jewish puppeteers.

4. Israel-Related Antisemitism: Israeli Control & Holocaust Trivialization

The tweet below accuses Israel of protecting Carney and Trudeau, and also claims that Israel owns the elections, its candidates, and the media.

5. Targeting of Jewish Politicians: Melissa Lantsman & Rachel Bendayan

In this tweet, the user targets Rachel Bendayan’s facial features due to her Jewish identity. The phrase “J3w nose spotted” relies on an antisemitic stereotype that Jews have exaggerated or distinct physical features—specifically large or “hooked” noses.