Survivors of the October 7 Supernova music festival massacre are facing a wave of online abuse from bots, which are suspected to be part of a coordinated campaign by Iran, according to a report by Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA).
The report found that social media platforms are failing to act against the bot-posted content, described by the FOA as a "sustained and multi-layered digital campaign" that hurls abusive comments and shares videos about the survivors.
These posts often call for the survivors' deaths and question the validity of their experiences on October 7 and its aftermath in an attempt to create false narratives and justify the events of that day, building on conspiracy theories surrounding the massacre.
The FOA narrowed down the source of the online abuse campaign to the Iranian regime.
IRGC has a history of leveraging cyber warfare against Islamic regime's enemies
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has a history of leveraging sophisticated cyber campaigns to attack critical infrastructure and vulnerable individuals, gather intelligence, and impact public opinion through propaganda.
State-sponsored hackers have been known to target organizations and individuals in Israel, the UK, and the US, among other places.
Tehran has in recent years utilized cyber warfare at varied levels of success, involving conspiracies revolving around the use of "crisis actors" on October 7, false-flag narratives, and the suggestion that the IDF fired on its own citizens to justify a ground invasion of Gaza.
The FOA pointed out sites like X/Twitter and TikTok as major nodes of harassment toward survivors, as well as general antisemitic memes and videos that "spread hate messages or mock the suffering of civilians."
Former Gaza hostages Noa Argamani, Romi Gonen subjected to online hate
The FOA highlighted posts targeting former Gaza hostages Noa Argamani and Romi Gonen, who have been subjected to messages labeling them 'terrorists' or 'w****s.'
The content "explicitly violates terms of service, including calls for violence," said the FOA. Despite this, posts routinely remain active, untouched by the platforms that host the hate speech. "Survivors are being harmed twice."
Omri Sassi, another survivor of the Nova massacre, told the Daily Telegraph in an interview that his trauma has been exacerbated by his and other survivors' encounters with misinformation, denial, and hate speech.
Sassi explained that the hate he faced led him to stage a London exhibition about the Nova music festival in an attempt to show the world what happened to the victims of Hamas terrorism.
“While we are successfully removing extremist content through close cooperation with social media platforms, antisemitism and extreme hatred against Jews, Zionists, and Israelis have spread internationally at a dizzying pace since October 7," Tomer Aldubi, the founder of FOA, told the Telegraph.
"We must not give up or be silent.”