UK Election Rhetoric Tainted by Antisemitism

Introduction

On July 4^th, 2024, citizens of the UK will take to the polls in the first general election that the UK has held in five years. This election is garnering significant attention as the polls are predicting a political upheaval, with a landslide victory going to the Labor Party. If Labor emerges victorious, this will be the first time in 14 years that the Conservative Party has been ousted from power.

Even more shockingly, there is a new-ish player in the mix – Reform UK – a right-wing populist party which is currently polling in third place among the popular vote and is rumored to potentially even overtake the Conservative Party.

Beyond the excitement of potential political upheaval, however, is a deeply concerning online trend – hateful allegations that the parties and their frontrunners are Jewish puppets

This is not surprising. Many major global events throughout history are accompanied by antisemitic campaigns and narratives blaming Jews for all manner of ills. Unfortunately, in today’s climate, where social media spreads hate at far more rapid rates than ever before, there has been an overall increase in real-world antisemitic attacks in the UK, particularly following the terrorist attacks on October 7.

Ahead of the elections and, as part of CyberWell’s ongoing efforts to monitor antisemitic content on social media platforms, CyberWell took a look at the antisemitic discourse related to the 3 largest parties in the running according to the polls and their leaders:

• Conservative Party and Rishi Sunak
• Labor Party and Keir Starmer
• Reform UK and Nigel Farage

Strong antisemitic content was found in posts referring to each of these candidates and parties.

Methodology

Between December 1, 2023 – June 24, 2024, CyberWell’s AI technology flagged 1,174 posts* in English on Facebook, X, and TikTok** that included keywords related to the UK General Election and had a high probability of being antisemitic.

_{*CyberWell categorizes posts according to the platform on which they were found. While some posts include shares of videos or content from other platforms, such as YouTube, they are only counted according to the platform on which the post itself was shared.}

_{**It is important to note that this dataset includes only one original TikTok post. This post is antisemitic but does not violate TikTok’s current community standards.}

Of the 1,174 posts, CyberWell selected a sample to vet. In total, 43 posts were confirmed as antisemitic according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, a globally recognized consensus definition that CyberWell uses as a discourse analysis tool and which includes 11 examples of antisemitism.

The antisemitic posts on X and TikTok garnered a total of 42,948 views (views are not available on Facebook posts). The total engagement of all 43 posts from all three platforms was 2,975 (this includes re-tweets, likes, comments, and shares and does not include views).

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism

Most of the posts in this dataset included content related to examples 2 and 3 (65%) while a little less than half of the posts included content related to example 9 (42%).

Example 2: “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 3: “Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews”.

Example 9: “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis”.

Community Standards & Prohibited Content

It is important to note that not every post that is antisemitic according to IHRA necessarily violates social media platforms’ policies and community guidelines. For example, IHRA examples 7-10 in general, and example 9 in particular, relate to antisemitic content directed towards the State of Israel and therefore do not violate the platforms’ policies as the State of Israel is not a protected entity. On the other hand, content related to examples 2 and 3, which refer directly to Jews – a protected group – violates platform guidelines in most cases.

Thus, in almost absolute congruence to the percentage of posts that included examples 2 and 3, 63% of the posts in this dataset violate platform hate speech policies.

Insights

Three main antisemitic narratives were identified:

1. Accusing Jews of Controlling UK Politics.

This narrative falls under the classic antisemitic claim that Jews are puppeteers insidiously controlling the world’s governments. (IHRA examples 2 and 3)

The tweet below alleges Jewish control of the UK political right. The user includes the images of the Leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, and two other British right-wing influencers – English media personality Katie Hopkins and far-right activist Tommy Robinson. The pictures are accompanied by the following antisemitic statement: “This is the Jewish Mafia that is going to fvck up the UK and you don’t even see it coming”.

The post below claims that Jews have manipulated and bribed politicians to advance their goals and calls for Labor Party leader Keir Starmer and any politician who has ties to Jews to be banned from public office: “Starmer is a Zionist married to a Jew any politician who is associated or related to the Jews should not be allowed public office of any type we have seen how the Jews have manipulated and bribed politicians from all parties to put forward laws and policies that they benefit by”.

2. Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories

• The Rothschild family conspiracy – One of the most prominent forms of antisemitism found on social media platforms. The Rothschild family – a famous Jewish banking family – is often used as a symbol of the conspiracy of global Jewish control and have been accused of masterminding everything from the sinking of the Titanic to 9/11. Recently they were also accused of controlling the French government as well. The malicious descriptions of the family are consistent with classic antisemitic descriptions of Jews: wicked, manipulative, greedy, etc.

In the tweet below, the user claims that the Rothschild family is behind Rishi Sunak’s UK election announcement and that the leading candidate for Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is controlled by them: “The Establishment have ordered Ratboy to have a GE in July. I wouldn’t get excited: Starmer is a Tory [a Conservative] – on the Rothschild payroll to sell your country off”.

• The Khazarian myth – an antisemitic conspiracy theory according to which modern day Jews originate from Khazaria (an ancient kingdom in Eastern Europe) after the local people mass converted to Judaism during the Middle Ages. The theory claims that Ashkenazi Jews of today have no direct link to their biblical ancestry. This myth often further claims that these Khazarian Ashkenazi Jews practice dark and satanic rituals from the Kabbalah and established a secret empire designed to promote global control. In addition, the theory claims that modern Jews have no connection to the Land of Israel, although they rule the modern State of Israel.

In the Facebook post below, the user shares a YouTube video alleging that a pro-Isael “Khazar” lobby has hijacked the Labor Party and states as follows: “This is crucial info for anyone in UK who is planning to vote for either Labour or Tory [The Conservative Party]. The Khazars have hijacked British democracy”.

• COVID-19 – The accusation that Jews are responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic with a goal of achieving global political and economic control.

The post below contains several antisemitic conspiracy theories including that Jews are evil, that Jewish bankers control the British Labor and Conservative parties, that they are behind the UK’s war with Russia, and that they are responsible for the Corona virus – all with the aim of promoting their nefarious interests and profiting.

“Conservatives and Labour in the pay of the Americans and Jewish banker’s are the ENEMIES of the British public!! STARTING A HOT WAR WITH RUSSIA FOR THEIR PROFITS !!! WHY HAS ISRAEL GOT AWAY WITH OPEN MURDER!!, BECAUSE ISRAEL KNOWS THE NATO PLAN AND FAT CAT JEWISH BANKERS ARE BEHIND THE WAR !!. THEIR GOALS ARE TO CONTROL RUSSIA AND THEN GO AFTER CHINA,  WHY ??, BECAUSE WE ARE JUST PRINTING MONEY FOR THEIR CORRUPTION AND THE HOUSE OF CARDS IS ABOUT TO COLLAPSE!!. THIS PLAN HAS BEEN IN ACTION SINCE 2014 !!, CORVID, THE POISON VACCINES ARE ALL PART OF THE PLAN !!, AS ARE THE IMMIGRANT SECURITY FORCES LIVING IN LUXURY IN TOP BRITISH HOTELS WHILE VETERANS LIVE ON THE STREETS!!!, WAKE UP AND HOLD CONSERVATIVES AND LABOUR RESPONSIBLE!!!, VOTE ANYTHING BUT LABOUR AND CONSERVATIVES!!!, WATCH FOR ELECTION RIGGING!!!”.

• Jewish control of the media and the economy.

In the post below, the user shares a YouTube video on Facebook claiming that Jews control British politics, the media, and the economy and are also the ones behind COVID-19: “[…] keir Starmer isn’t English! He’s Jewish! Sunak works for Goldman Sach (jewish). I despair at stupid people! Brainwashed and manipulated! Psych-ops, reverse psychology, constant repeating of the same garbage until the lie becomes the truth. The UK is completely finished. Last ones to leave turn out the lights. Globalist Jewish elites own 96% of the worlds media, Covid jabs are all Jew owned, your politicians are Jewish or Jew owned, the banks are Jew owned. They who control the oil control the nation, they who control the food control the people. Just about anyone in the media are Jewish.”

The above conspiracy theories and allegations fall under IHRA examples 2 and 3. Most of them should be prohibited according to the policies of the platforms on which they were posted. Better enforcement is vital for protecting the Jewish people from hate and harassment and creating a safe digital space for minority groups.

3. Demonizing Israel and Accusing it of Controlling UK Politics.

This narrative falls under IHRA example 9 and often is not considered prohibited by the host platforms. However, as can be seen in the posts, this narrative is often accompanied by a slew of additional hate and vitriol against the Jewish people in general.

The post below includes a number of offensive slurs against Jews, a distortion of the October 7 massacre by alleging that Israel was behind it, and the claim that Labor Party leader, Keir Starmer, is controlled by Israel. The user shares a photo of Starmer wearing a matching sweatshirt and sweatpants with the Israeli flag printed on them and is accompanied by the following quote from the actor Robin Williams: “Politicians should wear sponsor jackets like Nascar drivers, then we know who owns them.” Referring to the photo, the user states: “AIPAC, EPSTEIN’S LIST, JEWISH BANKERS, VICTIMISM, ETC. The Nazionists can have and do what they want because they have been able to deceive the masses with a supposed prophecy that they themselves wrote, in addition to using the money that the Jewish bankers accumulated to bribe, blackmail, manipulate news, threaten, indoctrinate, corrupt, etc. Obviously they are not the chosen people and God is not helping them, since to get their way they use lying, stealing, abusing, torturing, killing, raping, massacring, etc. They have always looked for a pretext and that is why they planned a self-attack with Hamas just as the Nazis planned the self-attack on the chancellery, and the same story of their existence being at risk; like their masters, their goal is to take over and rule the entire world. DON’T BE FOOLED!!! THEY LEARNED VERY WELL FROM GOEBBELS!! THEY DON’T WANT NON-JEWS!!! ABSOLUTELY ALL NAZIONISM IS MADE OF LIES!!! […]”

4. Hateful Campaigns

#TelAvivKeith

This trending hashtag refers to Labor Party leader Keir Starmer and frequently includes antisemitic content. The hashtag deliberately distorts Starmer’s first name (Keith instead of Keir) to insinuate that he is hiding his real identity. The distortion of Starmer’s name is accompanied by the word “Tel Aviv” which further insinuates that he promotes Israeli or Jewish interests rather than those of the UK. 12% of the posts in our dataset included this hashtag and also included antisemitic narratives of Jewish and Israeli control over Starmer and the Labor Party.

This tweet claims that the British Labor Party is controlled by Jews. The user is responding to a comment by a senior member of the Labor Party, David Lammy, at the Foreign Minister’s hearing in Parliament regarding a call for Israel to cease fire in its war in Gaza, and that Britain must enforce ICC arrest warrants against the heads of the State of Israel if it approves the request of prosecutor Karim Khan. Referring to Lammy’s speech, the user states: “Let’s be clear – David Lammy is an absolute cunt / Slave of the Jews but will #TelAvivKeith support him or throw him under the bus as will be demanded by his Jew masters in Tel Aviv? It doesn’t matter how much you worship the a Jews, not a single transgression will be tolerated!”

Coded Language Meaning “Jew”

A well-known method for spreading antisemitic content is through avoiding explicit mention of the word Jew or Jews, but rather using code words such as ‘Khazars’, ‘Babylonian Talmud’, ‘joo’, and ‘Zionists’. By avoiding the use of the word ‘Jew’, antisemitic posts slip under the radar and remain online despite violating community standards and hate speech policies.

The platforms must enforce their hate speech policies more effectively against content with problematic code words that are clearly demonizing Jews and therefore violating their Community Standards.

In the tweet below, the user implies that the Jews control the political leadership of the UK and are therefore satisfied with any leader that is elected. The post includes a cartoon of two people running a relay race in which the baton is passed from one runner to another. Referring to the cartoon, the user alleges that Rishi Sunak decided to call an election because he does not want to be prime minister during a war with Russia, unlike Keir Starmer, who would. The post ends with the statement that the Jews will be satisfied with the election results no matter who wins: “Because Sunak doesn’t want to be a wartime PM. But Starmer would love it. Either way the Babylonian Talmud [a central text of Rabbinic Judaism] zionists win”.

Antisemitism Spikes During Political Change – Take Action!

As elections take place this year in a number of countries including the UK, France, and the United States, CyberWell anticipates that antisemitic conspiracies, accusations, and hateful rhetoric will continue to rise online and in the real world. Unfortunately, one of the few things that opposing parties and sides have agreed on throughout history is the use of antisemitic tropes to blame the other for perceived failures and harms. This is especially true during times of social and political upheaval, such as the US elections in 2016. It is more critical than ever during uncertain times to monitor for hate and harassment, which CyberWell does every day. As this election year progresses, we will remain vigilant, identifying hateful trends and allegations and calling them out – developing implementable actions for social media platforms to take to reduce Jew-hatred.

Political rhetoric should be about candidate and party policies. We encourage everyone in a nation heading to the polls to make online regulation a top priority. In the UK – demand that the Online Safety Act be properly enforced. In France – demand that politicians commit to supporting enforcement of the European Union’s Digital Services Act. In the US – demand action on repealing or amending Section 230. In the meantime, head to our reporting platform and engage in activism be reporting Jew-hatred directly to platforms.

Antisemitic content related to Jewish control of governments and blatant conspiracy theories against Jews is prohibited by the Community Standards of Meta, X, and TikTok. Only by properly regulating and enforcing anti-hate policies can we clean up our online spaces and make the digital world safer for Jews everywhere.