Within 48 Hours of FlyDubai Incident, at Least 25,000 X Posts Pushed Conspiracy Theories

A FlyDubai flight to Israel made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on September 30, following what eyewitnesses described as an attempted hijacking. 

Details of what precisely transpired are still emerging, and conspiracy theories blaming Jews or alleging that this attack was a “false flag” quickly began to circulate. 

According to ADL analysis, at least 25,000 posts about the FlyDubai incident on X posted in the first 48 hours after the incident included conspiracy theory narratives, excluding those posts commenting on the incident or this trend.

Notable influencers and activists from across the political spectrum contributed to the spread of so-called “false flag” conspiracy theory narratives, a term used to claim that something is the work of governments or sinister forces, rather than as it seems. These figures, including Ana Kasparian, a host for the progressive outlet The Young Turks who often traffics in antisemitism, white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and the antisemitic and misogynistic manosphere influencer Sneako.

“Even Trump knows this is BS,” Sneako said during his September 30 livestream and posted on X, quote tweeting a video of President Trump calling the diverted crisis “the most amazing story.” It’s “looking like a psyop so far,” he told those tuning into his livestream. 

On The Young Turks’ podcast, Kasparian told the YouTube channel’s nearly 7 million followers that while she cannot say for certain whether it was a false flag, “I do find this story fishy. Super fishy.” Fuentes told his audience of 700,000 followers on Rumble outright that the incident was “false flag terrorism.”

Several other social media influencers and activists piled on, in particular on X, where false flag allegations generated thousands of posts. In an X post reposted 17,000 times and liked by 88,000 users, American Communist Party co-founder Jackson Hinkle theorized that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orchestrated the incident, writing, “All too predictable…” 

In a X post liked by 11,000 and reposted by nearly 800 users, anti-Israel account Power to the People — which has nearly 500,000 followers — posted: “The false flags are way too easy to spot.”

During an hour-long October 1 segment about the FlyDubai incident, Hasan Piker, a streamer who has a history of rhetoric that sanitizes violence and denigrates Jewish people, gave a mixed and largely skeptical take on the official account but stopped short of calling it a false flag. Piker called the timing of the incident “unbelievably beneficial, unbelievably fortuitous for Benjamin Netanyahu” — whom he referred to as “literally modern-day Adolf Hitler” — during the livestream. 

Antisemitic conspiracy theories often circulate in times of unrest or uncertainty, or following news events where the details are murky. Over the past several years, the number of antisemitic incidents tracked by ADL for the Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents that include elements of conspiracy theories has stayed consistently high, reaching into the hundreds each year.