Antisemitic conspiracy theories about French protests spread across social media — report

The nationwide civil unrest that erupted in France over the weekend sparked an online wave of antisemitic narratives blaming the crisis on Jews and Israel, according to a new report by the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s Antisemitism Research Center.

The posts on social media follow similar patterns to those CAM identified after other recent events, including the thwarted attempt to crash an Israel-bound flydubai flight earlier this month, and Spain’s border breach in Ceuta in August.

The new report documents 1,384 posts from 816 unique accounts on X over two days, October 16–18, as anti-government rioters clashed with police and vandalized buildings, including a synagogue. Research was based on 18,381 posts from X using 25 search queries in 7 languages.

The posts promoted narratives alleging that Jewish elites, Israel, Mossad or Zionists had orchestrated the unrest. Other recurring themes invoked the Rothschild family, the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, and claims that Jews were profiting from the crisis.

Seven posts called for violence against, expulsion or extermination of Jews, according to the report.

“Once again, with the unfolding situation in France, we are seeing the rapid and systematic exploitation of a news event by antisemites to spread conspiracy theories against Jews and Israel,” says Barney Breen-Portnoy, CAM’s editor-in-chief.