New online study tracks migration of antisemitic language from fringe forums to mainstream platforms
A new study of online antisemitism found that coded language originating on fringe forums is migrating into mainstream online discourse, where its original meaning can become less apparent to outsiders while remaining recognizable to extremists.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue analyzed roughly 305,000 posts classified as antisemitic, collected between September 2025 and March 2026 from more than 15 platforms and forums, including 4chan, X, YouTube, Reddit, Telegram, Tumblr and Bluesky. Researchers used roughly 1,000 keywords to identify potential posts before classifying them with a language model grounded in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
The report, published on Aug. 20, examines what ISD calls “lexical laundering,” defined as the process by which extremist vocabulary moves from fringe spaces into mainstream discourse while retaining its original in-group meaning and becoming more “deniable” to outsiders.
Of the 47,119 posts classified as antisemitic hate speech directed at other users, roughly 51% originated on 4chan. ISD cautioned that the figure understates the platform’s role because its data was downsampled to 20% to comply with export limits. Corrected for the downsampling, 4chan accounted for roughly 84% of such posts, according to the report.
One example is “goyslop,” a term that emerged from a conspiracy theory claiming that Jewish elites deliberately promote unhealthy processed food to weaken non-Jews. The term later spread into health and wellness communities on X, Reddit, YouTube and Bluesky. One creator used it in 37 videos over six months, including a post that received 205,000 engagements.
“It works, in part, because the words are Trojan horses. Slang does not receive the same scrutiny as an argument, so an obscure shell (for example, goy, the Hebrew and Yiddish word for a non-Jew) can seem like harmless internet slang,” the report states. “Thus, it gets waved through, ideology and all.”
Another example is “gorillion,” a Holocaust-denial term that “mocks the six million Jews murdered by Nazis, substituting an absurd, invented figure (‘six gorillion’) to frame the death toll as fabricated.” ISD found that its use surged on X beginning in October 2023 as the war in Gaza unfolded, even as use on 4chan remained relatively flat.
“Gorillion’s antisemitic meaning is recognizable only to those familiar with the reference—especially when used without the ‘six’ prefix,” the report states. “It’s this obscurity to outsiders that provides the deniability more explicit slurs lack.”
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A new study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) tracked the migration of antisemitic coded language, termed “lexical laundering,” from fringe forums to mainstream online platforms between September 2025 and March 2026. Analyzing approximately 305,000 antisemitic posts across over 15 platforms, including 4chan, X, YouTube, and Reddit, the study found that terms like “goyslop” and “gorillion” originate in extremist spaces and then spread, becoming less overtly antisemitic to outsiders while retaining their original meaning for insiders. For instance, “goyslop,” linked to a conspiracy theory about Jewish elites, infiltrated health communities, while “gorillion,” a Holocaust-denial term, surged on X after October 2023. The report notes, "It works, in part, because the words are Trojan horses. Slang does not receive the same scrutiny as an argument." ISD recommends platforms monitor term migration, track accounts that bridge communities, and watch for sudden spikes in obscure terms to combat this challenge.
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