A New Antisemitic Meme Emerges

On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorists broke through the border with Israel to stage a major terror attack that killed over 1,400 people composed of 18+ nationalities.

An iconic image from this attack—one which inspired fear and celebration—was the sight of armed gunmen flying to attack civilians on paragliders. This image was promoted by Hamas and its supporters to glorify their violence, and it spread across the world, being adopted by neo-Nazi communities as a symbol of violence against Jews. This meme is spreading on all major platforms.

ActiveFence Insights report on 'The Paraglider: A New Antisemitic Meme.' The report discusses the emergence and spread of an antisemitic meme depicting a paraglider, used by extremist groups to glorify violence. The image shows various examples of the meme, including its adoption by neo-Nazi communities.

Within this report:

This ActiveFence report based upon the research of Dr. Ariel Koch, and featured by Rolling Stone charts the assent of this new meme and its implications for all Trust & Safety teams working with UGC platforms. This report:

  • Evaluates the symbol’s meaning and applications for various threat actor communities to provide necessary context for moderation teams.
  • Explains how this meme glorifies terror attacks, falling under EU TERREG regulations.
  • Provides use cases for those responsible for automated flagging and detection to enhance platform rules and workflows.

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