The “Zionist Occupied Government” (ZOG) conspiracy theory increased more than threefold during the 2026 Iran war, Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA) has revealed.
The “ZOG” conspiracy theory falsely claims a secret Jewish/Israeli cabal controls global institutions and sovereign governments, especially that of the US.
FOA looked at two 38-day periods in 2026 for its study: the baseline period (January 21 – February 27, 2026) and the war period (February 28 – April 6, 2026).
It found that the increased volume of hate content was accompanied by a focus explicitly around the term “ZOG” – which increased from 49% prevalence in the baseline period to 63% during the wartime dataset.
Public engagement with the rhetoric also intensified dramatically during the Iran conflict – conspiracy theory content, including ZOG references, received double the amount of likes and a 10-times increase in shares compared to pre-war levels.
Volume of conspiracy posts explodes
Prior to the conflict, shadow-government and anti-regime conspiracy narratives maintained a “steady, fragmented baseline,” FOA said.
The 38-day baseline period yielded a targeted sample of 988 posts. Of these 988, 485 were determined to be explicitly ZOG-related, equating to 49.1% of baseline traffic.
After the outbreak of military operations on February 28, the volume of conspiracy posts captured “exploded” by 217.6%, reaching a total of 3,138 posts.
The proportion of ZOG-related content also exploded. Of the 3,138 total, 1,977 were determined to be ZOG-related, equaling 63% of the wartime set.
“This increase highlights how the geopolitical crisis functioned as a direct volume multiplier specifically for ZOG-related content across the monitored networks,” FOA noted.
The organization also noted that within 48 hours of initial military strikes, broad anti-establishment targets were systematically replaced by localized labels: “Zionists,” “Mossad,” and “Jewish control.”
Regarding the responses of social media platforms to this hateful content, FOA said it was “deficient.” The organization flagged explicit violations, including the use of ZOG, to Meta and X/Twitter.
In terms of META, FOA said “its enforcement remains ineffective” due to a major loophole: Meta conditions its ban on ZOG to instances where it is “clearly” used as a proxy for Jewish people; however, extremists exploit this by framing antisemitic tropes as political debate.
“This structural flaw explains why Meta’s automated systems failed to remove 70% of the reported content, exposing a severe gap between corporate rhetoric and actual enforcement,” FOA said.
X did not respond to FOA’s findings.
FOA urges platforms to provide priority for verified organizations
The organization then urged platforms to provide priority queues for verified civil society organizations – such as FOA and Action and Protection Foundation (TEV) – during active geopolitical crises.
Reports from such groups should bypass automated bots and go directly to a human moderator for rapid review within a strict 24-hour window, FOA suggested.
It also urged platforms to cut off the financial incentives that drive viral hate.
For example, accounts participating in creator revenue-sharing programs (specifically on X and YouTube) should be instantly demonetized if they leverage explicit or coded antisemitic frameworks to drive engagement during international conflicts.
Overall, FOA concluded that the report “demonstrates the adaptability of contemporary antisemitism.
“Rather than relying exclusively on traditional forms of hate speech, antisemitic narratives increasingly embed themselves within broader political debates, attaching themselves to discussions of foreign policy, national sovereignty, institutional trust, and international conflict.
“Geopolitical crises, like the US-Israel-Iran conflict, act as catalysts that rapidly unite fragmented extremist communities around this framework. Ultimately, this process mainstreams fringe neo-Nazi rhetoric, weaponizing legitimate foreign policy debates to drive systemic antisemitism online,” it concluded.