Antisemitic Conspiracy Campaign Spreads on X Amid Spain Migration Crisis at Ceuta Border

A recent migration crisis at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, where tens of thousands of Moroccan migrants crossed the border over a weekend, rapidly escalated into a widespread antisemitic conspiracy campaign on the social media platform X. A new study by the Anti-Semitism Combat Movement (CAM) and its Anti-Semitism Research Center (ARC) reveals how this complex political event was distorted into a modern blood libel accusing Israel and Jews of orchestrating the migration wave to destabilize Europe.

Within just 72 hours, the research documented 173 amplified posts from 119 influential X accounts, reaching 57.5 million direct views and an estimated global audience of 103.1 million. Each post averaged approximately 332,000 views and 600,000 in reach, generating about 1.9 million likes and over 300,000 shares, but only tens of thousands of comments. This high share-to-comment ratio indicates the conspiracy content was rapidly accepted and disseminated as fact without debate or skepticism.

The report identifies three main antisemitic narratives: the "Zionist punishment" theory alleging Mossad and the CIA engineered the migration as retaliation against Spain’s political stance and recognition of a Palestinian state; the recycled "fifth column" myth claiming Jews use Muslim migration as a demographic weapon to undermine European civilization; and the portrayal of Morocco as a puppet state controlled remotely by Israeli intelligence. Notably, extremist accounts from the far right, far left, and radical Islam converged to spread the same antisemitic explanation despite their usual ideological opposition.

The researchers highlight a structural flaw in X’s platform, which prioritizes verified accounts with blue checkmarks and incentivizes them financially through ad revenue sharing. This mechanism turned hate speech into a profitable enterprise, exposing users seeking reliable information to antisemitic conspiracies before verified news reports appeared.

CAM issued three key demands to X’s management: impose distribution limits on conspiratorial and antisemitic content during humanitarian crises; revoke ad revenue eligibility and exposure priority for hate-spreading accounts; and collaborate with international research organizations to add expert factual and historical context in real time. CAM CEO Sasha Roitman emphasized, "The Ceuta crisis proves antisemitism has become the automatic explanation for global anxiety events. When the far right, far left, and radical Islam speak the same conspiratorial language, antisemitism is the glue uniting extremists. Platforms must immediately stop algorithmically incentivizing hate."

Summary: The migration surge at Spain’s Ceuta border sparked a viral antisemitic conspiracy campaign on X, accusing Israel and Jews of orchestrating the crisis. A study found massive reach and rapid spread of hateful content, fueled by platform incentives and extremist alliances. The Anti-Semitism Combat Movement calls on X to restrict such content and cooperate with experts to provide factual context during crises.