The debate about the Middle East conflict on social media

On 7 October 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups carried out an attack in southern Israel that killed more than 1,100 people and injured more than 5,000. More than 200 people were taken hostage to Gaza. In response to the attack, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched a major military offensive against Gaza, which is still ongoing. As the conflict escalated on the ground, media coverage and content shared on social media increased, including in Norway. The debate raged in social media comment sections, and in the physical world there were several reports of physical violence, racism and threats against Jews and people of Palestinian, Muslim and/or Arab background.

From previous analyses of big data from social media, we have seen that when conflicts, wars and major political battles are fought elsewhere in the world, this is also felt in the Norwegian digital debate. Extreme attitudes, conspiracy theories or negative stereotypes can be expressed in public comment sections and can help spread messages of hatred, racism and violence.

Are there signs that the tone of public debate in Norway has hardened as a result of the 7 October attack in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza? And how are different groups referred to when discussing the conflict?

To answer the question of how the Middle East conflict is discussed on social media, we collected posts and comments on Facebook and TikTok both before and after the 7 October attacks. To measure the tone of the debates on Facebook and TikTok, we used the language algorithm A&ttack2, which detects linguistic attacks in comments. We also read and systematised around 12,000 comments to identify the themes of the comments and whether they contained anti-Semitism or hostility towards Muslims.

The key findings of the report are

#1 Facebook debate about the Middle East intensified sharply after 7 October.

#2 Linguistic attacks increase on TikTok and Facebook after 7 October

#3 Two per cent of comments left after moderation contain anti-Semitism or hostility towards Muslims.

#4 Opponents have completely different perceptions of facts, truth and valid arguments

#5 The debate is polarised and characterised by trench dynamics.