Social media companies failing to remove denials of Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre: report

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Friday, January 26, 2024

A supporter of Israel holds a picture of kidnapped Israeli hostages Gad Haggai and Judith Lynne Weinstein during the 'Flood Wall Street for Gaza' rally outside the New York Stock Exchange on October 26, 2023, in New York. Over 1,200 civilians were murdered, and 240 others were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists based in the Gaza Strip after they invaded southern Israel in an unprecedented attack, triggering a war declared by Israel on Hamas with retaliatory bombings on Gaza. — A supporter of Israel holds a picture of kidnapped Israeli hostages Gad Haggai and Judith Lynne Weinstein during the "Flood Wall Street for Gaza" rally outside the New York Stock Exchange on October 26, 2023, in New York. Over 1,200 civilians were murdered, and 240 others were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists based in the Gaza Strip after they invaded southern Israel in an unprecedented attack, triggering a war declared by Israel on Hamas with retaliatory bombings on Gaza. | BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images

Social media companies only removed a small fraction of 313 posts that denied or distorted the brutal acts of violence Hamas committed during its Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, according to a report released by a technology nonprofit in anticipation of World Holocaust Remembrance Day Saturday.

CyberWell is an organization that focuses on combating antisemitism online. The technology nonprofit utilizes artificial intelligence technology to identify posts that violate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which involves denying the tragic event and claiming the Jews made the Holocaust up to establish Israel.

According to a report Cyberwell provided to The Christian Post this month, the nonprofit analyzed 910 potentially antisemitic posts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X. Out of the over 900 posts Cyberwell reviewed, 313 of them downplayed or outright denied the atrocities committed by Hamas during its Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

Thirty-eight percent of the content denied that Hamas terrorists raped women during the surprise attack, and more than 36% claimed that Israel was responsible for the acts of violence carried out by Hamas militants. Another 5.11% of posts accused Israel of somehow profiting from the October massacre.

"This content was studied and verified by CyberWell's team. Although these posts had a far-reaching impact, collectively garnering over 25 million views, after being reported to the platforms, only 6% of this dataset set was removed," the report states.

The nonprofit also cited X as the worst offender when it came to hosting Oct. 7 denial content, noting that the platform only had a 2% removal rate.

Before publishing the report, Cyberwell stated that the social media platforms only removed 8.91% of the 313 posts flagged in its analysis.

"The morning of October 7, Hamas militants sadistically recorded and, in some cases, even live-streamed their heinous attack to social media," CyberWell Founder and Executive Director Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor told CP in a statement. "Caught by surprise, these platforms rapidly became weapons of mass psychological terror during the attack, and once the true scope of terror was realized are now being used by Hamas supporters to deny and distort the attack."

On Oct. 7, Hamas slaughtered at least 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and abducted around 240 others after invading Israel via the land, air and sea. In response, Israel declared itself in a state of war and launched a counter-attack in Gaza to eradicate the terrorist group that has run the Gaza Strip since 2007. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says that over 26,000 people have been killed since the war began. But these figures don't differentiate between combatants and civilians.

"While all mainstream social media platforms have community standards policies prohibiting the denial of violent events, which has been extended in practice to include Holocaust denial, these companies have yet to apply this policy to the denial of the events of October 7, the largest violent atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust," she continued.

"This is a policy gap and we are calling on all social media platforms to proactively make the change to their policies to effectively stop the spread of hate and protect Jewish users online."

In November, CP attended a private screening of a 45-minute video compiled by the Israeli government showcasing the murders committed by Hamas on civilians in southern Israel. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews worked in partnership with the Israeli Embassy to host the screening.

The footage shown during the event was collected from various sources, including Hamas body cameras, security cameras, social media posts, cell phone cameras and first responders.

One set of videos showed Hamas members breaching the border in Gaza and infiltrating Israel through a hole in the fence. Once they were through, the terrorists began shooting at cars on the highway, killing the passengers inside and dragging their dead bodies out of their vehicles.

Other video clips showed Hamas militants attacking civilians in their homes or shooting at the attendees of the Supernova Music Festival, where the terrorists killed over 360 people.

Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman