"The Writing on the Wall is Written in Blood": Antisemitic Lies Explode on Social Media
CyberWell has identified a wave of antisemitic conspiracy theories blaming Jews for fires across Europe. One post on X has garnered over two million views, highlighting how antisemitism adapts to the news cycle to spread hate.
CyberWell, a non-profit organization that serves as a trusted partner to tech giants Meta — Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — as well as TikTok and YouTube, in the fight against online antisemitism, issued an urgent warning this week to the X platform, formerly Twitter, after identifying a new wave of antisemitic conspiracy theories.
These theories falsely attribute responsibility for massive fires across Europe to Jews.
According to the organization's data, nearly identical narratives were identified surrounding recent fires that occurred in Norway, France, and Spain. This phenomenon demonstrates a recurring pattern of event-driven antisemitism, where hostile actors exploit major crises to spread hatred against Jews.
Repeated lies in different languages
CyberWell analysts identified numerous posts in English, French, and Spanish that falsely claimed that Jews intentionally started the fires or planned them for political or economic gain. Similar conspiracy theories were documented by the organization following previous fires, including the massive fires in Los Angeles in 2025 and the Patagonia fires earlier this year.
This phenomenon is not limited to fires alone. These posts fit into a broader pattern that CyberWell documents following various crises, including events such as the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and the hantavirus outbreak. Hostile and antisemitic actors systematically weave the name of the Jewish people into breaking news reports, using familiar antisemitic motifs that present Jews as secretly responsible for disasters or as those who profit from human suffering.
Dangerous virality and the language of dehumanization
One of the posts monitored around the massive fires in Norway alone crossed the two-million-view threshold on X, turning a fringe conspiracy theory into a broad wave of hate-filled content. Another post dealing with the fires in Spain reached more than 69,100 users.
As the false claims spread, the content was gradually integrated with the language of dehumanization, calls to expel Jews, and classic antisemitic imagery — including the "Happy Merchant" caricature.
"The same scapegoating stories that once starred in the Nazi propaganda of the Third Reich are starring today on every major social media platform immediately after every crisis," said CyberWell CEO and founder Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor.
"Whether the story involves a fire, a disease outbreak, a shooting, or another international crisis, we see the same conspiracies raising their heads again and again within a few hours. The details change, but the message remains the same: Jews are maliciously portrayed as those who secretly organize disasters or profit from human suffering. This pattern proves how much antisemitism adapts itself to the news cycle, while recycling centuries-old myths."
Call to action for tech giants
The content identified meets exactly the frameworks of antisemitic conspiracy theories defined in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition. CyberWell calls on technology platforms to strengthen detection tools focused on recurring motifs of antisemitic conspiracies, close policy gaps, and expand collaborations with organizations specializing in the fight against online hate.
The organization warns that the last few years have proven time and again that baseless conspiracies lead directly to targeted violence against Jewish communities around the world, and that "the writing is already on the wall, and it is written in blood."
