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Antisemitic conspiracy theorists used the run-up to last week’s 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks to spread a wider web of unrelated libels targeting Jews, a new study by CAM’s Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) revealed.
Nearly one in five posts flagged by the ARC included at least one additional antisemitic conspiracy theory not tied to September 11th.
ARC analysts reviewed 4,360 unique posts collected on X between August 28 and September 4, using four 9/11-related keyword scans. They assessed each post individually against a written ruleset.
Of the total, 2,587 posts, or 59.3%, both advanced an antisemitic conspiracy theory and referenced the 9/11 attacks.
The more significant finding, however, concerned what that content carried with it. Of the flagged posts, 491, or 19%, fused the 9/11 allegations with at least one additional antisemitic conspiracy theory unrelated to the attacks.
Read the full ARC analysis, “The 9/11 Libel as a Gateway to Antisemitic Conspiracy Networks on X,” HERE.
The most common involved claims about an Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell blackmail network, which appeared in 256 posts. That was followed by the JFK assassination (98), October 7th and “Hannibal Directive” claims (83), and the assassination of Charlie Kirk (79). Other posts invoked the USS Liberty incident, COVID-19 pandemic, Ukraine war, and terrorist attacks in Bondi Beach, Mumbai, and Pahalgam, as well as the centuries-old “blood libel” falsely accusing Jews of murdering non-Jews for ritual purposes.
“The 9/11 libel is no longer spreading as an isolated falsehood that can be debunked on its own terms,” said ARC Research Associate Oliver Marks. “It works as a gateway. A user drawn in by 9/11 content is, in one post in five, handed a second conspiracy theory in the same breath, centuries-old libels repackaged for a modern feed.”
The findings also demonstrate how quickly antisemites incorporate new events into an established conspiratorial worldview. Claims surrounding last year’s assassination of Charlie Kirk and Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre appeared alongside theories that have circulated for decades. Each new tragedy becomes another vehicle for recycling accusations against Jews and the State of Israel.
A quarter-century after September 11th, conspiracy theorists are exploiting the atrocity as part of a far broader antisemitic narrative. In doing so, they distort the historical truth of what happened that day and desecrate the memory of nearly 3,000 victims.
CAM calls on X to enforce its hateful conduct policies against this material. It also urges researchers, educators, and policymakers to recognize that combating the 9/11 antisemitic libel requires confronting the larger conspiracy network sustaining it.
Read more:
Analysis: 25 Years Later, Antisemites Are Winning the War to Rewrite the Facts of 9/11
