The “ZOG” Surge: A Data-Driven Analysis of Antisemitic Narrative Shifts During the Iran War

Executive Summary

Following the qualitative report by Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA) on March 10, 2026, How Antisemitic Conspiracies Are Hijacking the Iran War Narrative, this report provides data to assess the increase of online hate during the Iran war. By applying a quantitative methodology to a cross-platform dataset over two 38-day periods in 2026, developed in a targeted monitoring partnership with TEV (Action and Protection Foundation), a leading European anti-antisemitism watchdog – we found that “Zionist Occupied Government” (ZOG) conspiracy theory, which accuses Jews/Israel of controlling the United States, increased more than three-fold during the war. The “ZOG” conspiracy theory falsely claims a secret Jewish cabal controls global institutions and sovereign governments.The increased volume of hate content was accompanied by focus explicitly around the term ‘ZOG’ – which increased from 49% prevalence in the baseline period to 63% share of the wartime dataset.
Public engagement with this rhetoric also intensifi ed dramatically during the confl ict – conspiracy theory content, including ‘ZOG’ references, received double the amount of likes and a tenfold increase in shares compared to pre-war levels.
Geopolitical crises, like the US-Israel-Iran confl ict, 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.