A "sustained and multi-layered digital campaign" that hurls abusive comments and shares videos about the survivors is not being combated effectively by social media platforms.Follow us on GoogleBereaved families, friends and soldiers stand still as a two minutre siren sounded across Israel, marking Memorial Day which commemorates the fallen Israeli soldiers and victims of terror at the site of the Nova music festival massacre, in Re'im forest, near the Israeli-Gaza border, April 21.(photo credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)ByJONAH DAVIDOVJULY 13, 2026 07:10Survivors of the October 7 Supernova music festival massacre are facing a wave of online abuse from bots, which are suspected to be part of a coordinated campaign by Iran, according to a report by Fighting Online Anti-Semitism (FOA).According to the report, thousands of bot accounts targeted survivors of the Nova festival, where 364 people were murdered by Hamas and dozens taken hostage. According to the FOA report, social media platforms are failing to act against the bot-posted content, described as a "sustained and multi-layered digital campaign" which hurls abusive comments and shares videos about the survivors.These posts often call for the survivors' deaths and question the validity of their experiences on October 7 and its aftermath in an attempt to create false narratives and justify the events of that day, building on conspiracy theories surrounding the massacre.In their report, the FOA narrowed down the source of the online abuse campaign to the Iranian regime. Bereaved families, friends and Israeli soldiers visit the Nova music festival massacre memorial site in Re’im Forest, near the Israeli-Gaza border, during Israel’s Memorial Day, April 21, 2026. (credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)IRGC has a history of leveraging cyber warfare against Islamic regime's enemiesThe Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has a history of leveraging sophisticated cyber campaigns to attack critical infrastructure and vulnerable individuals, gather intelligence, and impact public opinion through propaganda.State-sponsored hackers have been known to target organizations and individuals in Israel, the UK, and the US, among other places. From data harvesting to terror recruitment, Tehran has in recent years utilized cyber warfare at varied levels of success.Propaganda peddled by Iranian bots has slowly made its way into a greater, real-world Zeigeist. Conspiracies revolving around the use of "crisis actors" on October 7, false-flag narratives, outright denialism, and the suggestion that the IDF fired on its own citizens to justify a ground invasion of Gaza have made the rounds.The FOA pointed out sites like X/Twitter and TikTok as major nodes of harassment towards survivors, as well as general antisemitic memes and videos that "spread hate messages or mock the suffering of civilians."Nova survivors targeted by hate speech, denialismThe report highlighted posts labeling Noa Argamani, a hostage who was held by Hamas for 245 days in Gaza following the October 7 massacre, "a terrorist" and a "whore," among other things. The same can be said for Romi Gonen, who has experienced a barrage of hateful posts, according to FOA researchers.Omri Sassi, a survivor of the Nova massacre, told The Telegraph in an interview that his trauma has been exacerbated by his and other survivors' encounters with misinformation, denial, and hate speech, to which he responded by staging a London exhibition about the Nova festival - his attempt to bring truth to those who would deny the truth of what happened to the victims of Hamas terrorism. The content "explicitly violates terms of service, including calls for violence," said the FOA. Despite this, posts routinely remain active, untouched by the platforms that host the hate speech. "Survivors are being harmed twice"Tomer Aldubi, the founder of FOA, told The Telegraph, “While we are successfully removing extremist content through close cooperation with social media platforms, anti-Semitism and extreme hatred against Jews, Zionists and Israelis have spread internationally at a dizzying pace since October 7. We must not give up or be silent.”Follow us on Google