By Pesach Benson • September 16, 2026
Jerusalem, 16 September, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Antisemitic conspiracy theories portraying the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a plot orchestrated by Jews and Israel reached tens of millions of social media users during last week’s 25th-anniversary commemorations, according to a report released Wednesday.
The study, conducted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s (CAM) Antisemitism Research Center, analyzed 174 high-reach posts published between Sept. 11 and 13 that collectively generated at least 56.5 million views, 1.2 million likes, 122,000 shares and 46,000 comments. CAM is a US-based antisemitism watchdog organization.
The Knesset Plaza in Jerusalem during a visit by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy on May 1, 2023. Photo by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS-IL
The report said the posts promoted conspiracy theories falsely portraying Jews and Israel as the hidden architects of the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people after Al Qaeda hijackers seized four commercial airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
The narratives frequently focused on Jewish American real estate developer Larry Silverstein, who held the lease to the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks. Other posts alleged that U.S. officials helped facilitate the attacks to justify wars in the Middle East, according to the report.
The findings indicated that such theories were being circulated not only on fringe websites but through the algorithm-driven feeds of major platforms including X, Instagram and TikTok.
“The 25th anniversary of September 11th should have been a universal moment of remembrance and reflection,” said Oliver Marks, a research associate at the center.
“Instead, our study showed how antisemites exploited the moment to resurrect and amplify familiar conspiracy narratives falsely blaming Jews and Israel for the attacks,” Marks said.
The CAM called on social media companies to stop algorithmically promoting such content and to disclose how frequently their systems delivered it to users during the anniversary period.
