A new report by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) claims that antisemitic conspiracy theories blaming Israel and the Jewish people for the recent migrant surge into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta spread widely on X, reaching an estimated audience of more than 100 million people within 72 hours.
According to an analysis by CAM's Antisemitism Research Center (ARC), 173 posts from 119 influencer accounts recast the border crisis as a Jewish plot, generating 57.5 million views, an estimated reach of 103.1 million people, 1.9 million likes, and more than 368,000 shares.
Between 50,000 and 60,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta on July 30, prompting Spain to declare a state of emergency. The migrant influx followed a Spanish domestic legal ruling and came amid ongoing tensions between Spain and Morocco, as well as years of pressure on Europe's asylum system.
While the causes of the crisis were publicly documented, conspiracy theories rapidly gained traction on X, claiming that Israel and the Jewish people had orchestrated the events.
The ARC said its analysis focused exclusively on named, monetized influencer accounts rather than anonymous users or bot networks. According to the report, many of the accounts held paid verification, which CAM said gives their content greater visibility through X's recommendation systems.
Among the examples cited in the report was an account identified as "Forbidden HQ," which allegedly shared an image depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with migrants emerging from his mouth onto a Spanish beach. CAM said the post was viewed 5.3 million times and was accompanied by additional claims portraying Morocco as an Israeli puppet state.
The report also cited a post by social media personality Dan Bilzerian, which CAM said received 2.7 million views. According to CAM, Bilzerian falsely claimed that Prime Minister Netanyahu had threatened Spain with "the ultimate price" over its criticism of Israel, combining that allegation with an unrelated Israeli Foreign Ministry holiday greeting to Morocco.
CAM further alleged that an account calling itself "China Times," which it said is unaffiliated with any Chinese news organization, falsely claimed Israel had admitted to engineering the migration through the Mossad, citing a parody account as evidence.
According to the report, shares significantly outnumbered comments across the analyzed posts, suggesting that users were more likely to amplify the claims than challenge them.
The ARC also found that similar narratives appeared across far-right, far-left, and Islamist accounts, despite their differing political ideologies.
According to CAM, far-right accounts promoted longstanding antisemitic "Great Replacement" theories alleging that Jewish elites are engineering demographic change in Europe. The report said far-left figures, including author Susan Abulhawa, claimed that the migrant surge had been "completely engineered by the US, Israel, and Morocco," while other accounts linked Spain's support for the Palestinians and other geopolitical developments to what they described as an Israeli plot.
CAM also cited posts falsely attributing statements to Spanish actor Javier Bardem alleging that Israel planned the migration in retaliation for Spain's criticism of Israel. According to the report, Bardem made no such statement, but the claim was subsequently amplified by commentator Mia Khalifa.
The report said additional posts attempted to portray Morocco's military cooperation with Israel as evidence that Israel orchestrated the migrant crossing, while others revived longstanding antisemitic narratives portraying Jewish people as manipulating migration to undermine European society.
"A humanitarian emergency at Europe's border was turned into a global antisemitic campaign in under 72 hours, and X did nothing to slow it down. This is not a story about a few bad actors. It is a story about a platform whose design rewards the fastest and most inflammatory explanation available, and on X that explanation is increasingly a Jewish conspiracy," said CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa.
CAM called on X to introduce what it described as algorithmic safeguards for keywords associated with established antisemitic tropes during humanitarian emergencies, remove accounts spreading such content from the platform's advertising and verification benefits, and deploy expert Community Notes in partnership with organizations, including CAM, to provide historical context in real time.
The movement argued that X's recommendation systems are amplifying antisemitic content and called on the platform to take action against what it described as the demonization of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.