Antisemitism in digital environments - A literature review
Publish date: 2025-09-30
Report number: FOI-R--5795--SE
Pages: 54
Written in: Swedish
Keywords:
- antisemitism in digital environments
- digital ecosystems
- conspiracy theories
- normalization
- radicalization
- political violence
- algorithmic amplification
- interdisciplinary and multi-method approaches
Abstract
This literature review, commissioned by the Living History Forum, summarizes the current state of knowledge on antisemitism in digital environments. Antisemitism appears here as particularly resilient: familiar antisemitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories with deep historical roots are repackaged into digital formats and disseminated through coded expressions, "humorous" elements, and memes. This makes antisemitism difficult to identify, while at the same time trivializing and normalizing it. According to research in the field, such normalization provides fertile ground for broader intolerance and risks of radicalization, and can, in the worst case, inspire acts of violence. The spread of antisemitism in digital environments is facilitated by a complex and extensive digital ecosystem that provides technical and communicative tools for rapid and low-cost dissemination. Antisemitism and antisemitic conspiracy theories are produced and spread by actors across the ideological spectrum, by extremist groups as well as in more mainstream contexts. Research also shows that the overlapping crises and wars of recent years have led to an intensification of antisemitism online. The report also identifies important knowledge gaps. For example, more research is needed on the consequences of the normalization of antisemitism in digital environments, the role of antisemitic conspiracy theories in radicalization, the instrumentalization of antisemitism by political actors, as well as on algorithmic amplification of content and the interplay between online activities and events in physical spaces.