Antisemitic Disinformation Floods Campuses, Leaving Jewish Students Vulnerable

The digital age has turned university campuses into battlegrounds for truth, where social media disinformation is weaponizing ignorance and targeting Jewish students with alarming ferocity. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where students scroll for their daily news fix, prioritize viral outrage over accuracy, creating a perfect storm for propaganda and hate to flourish.

Antisemitic narratives are surging online, fueled by bad actors—from foreign operatives to radical activists—who exploit relaxed content moderation on platforms like Meta and X. Since January 2025, Meta’s shift to "community framing" and X’s hands-off approach have left disinformation unchecked, amplifying conspiracy theories that paint Jewish people as villains. The result? A toxic campus environment where Jewish students face harassment, doxxing, and isolation.

Research paints a grim picture: nearly 60% of students rely on social media for news, with many unable to distinguish fact from fiction. My own workshops revealed over half of students believed fabricated stories, and a staggering 87% to 94% begged for mandatory media literacy training. Across U.S. and U.K. campuses, antisemitic disinformation spiked post-October 7th, with U.K. surveys reporting rates as high as 88%. American universities, once bastions of intellectual rigor, are failing to push back.

Universities must act. They can’t control social media, but they can arm students with tools to navigate this mess. Practical courses in media literacy, taught by tech and journalism experts, should be mandatory. Clear rules must also hold students and professors accountable for spreading lies that incite hostility. This isn’t about censoring speech—it’s about safeguarding truth and student safety.

The stakes are high. Disinformation doesn’t just erode campus cohesion; it frays democracy itself. Jewish students, increasingly unsafe, are canaries in the coal mine. University leaders who dodge this crisis with weak free-speech platitudes are failing their students and the future. It’s time for bold action to restore truth as the foundation of higher education.