MediaPost reported that Google searches for antisemitic content have spiked since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. It’s not clear if the search inquiries were rooted in hate, cultural cluelessness, or curiosity. But it will be interesting to see the Google Doodle addressing the disturbing phenomenon.
Antisemitic Search Queries Rise ‘Massively’
By Laurie Sullivan
Mordy Oberstein, head of the SEO brand at Israeli software company Wix, shared data on social-media platforms that had him “literally shaking.”
Google searches for antisemitic queries are up “massively” since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. What does it mean for marketers?
Oberstein, who authored The Mideast Journal’s study, has worked at Wix for more than three years, but he also serves as a communications advisor for Semrush.
Search has long been a guide for what people want to purchase or learn more about. Companies float a variety of numbers to determine the number of searches daily.
One report estimates that in August 2023, about 8.5 billion searches took place on Google daily, about 99,000 searches per second. Some 15% of Google searches are unique, which is equivalent to 1.275 billion unique queries every day.
Analysts working with Oberstein pulled data from Semrush, analyzing the search volumes for particular keywords in September 2023 compared with October 2023.
Keywords analyzed include intifada, intifada revolution, from the river to the sea, glory to our martyrs, by all means necessary, why did Hitler hate the Jews, Hitler was right, are Jews bad, kill Jews, and why are Jews bad.
Oberstein found misinformation, decay and hatred — not only in the United States, but worldwide.
Just prior to Hamas’ attack on Israel in September through October, the data shows an 1800% rise in the number of Google searches for “Kill Jews.”
The search term “are Jews bad” rose 182%, and “why Jews are bad” rose 460%.
“It could be argued, that as people watched the news unfold, [and listened] to the vocal protests, Google users were searching for the term without any malicious intent toward Jews,” Oberstein wrote.
In early September 2023, before the attack, zero Google searches registered for the term “kill Jews” in Semrush’s data. A month later, after the attacks on October 7, the term began to register in the data.
“We went from not seeing the term register in the data set at all to seeing the search query accrue more than a substantial amount of monthly Google searches (approximately 500 in the U.S. over 30 days),” he wrote.
In October 2022, data also showed a significant increase in the frequency of searches for the term “kill Jews.” At the time, Kanye West had used antisemitic language and NBA star Kyrie Irving struggled with his own antisemitic controversy.
The rhetoric spewed by the singer and the NBA player raised concerns about spreading antisemitism. The term “kill Jews” at the time reached a monthly search volume of 170.
Since October 2023, searches for the term “Hitler was right” rose 122% and the terms “intifada revolution,” “from the river to the sea” and “glory to our martyrs” jumped in search frequency above 10,000%.
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