90-Second Read: Antisemitic Hantavirus Conspiracy Theories Are Spreading—and the Platforms Are Hands Off

Crew from a cruise ship affected by Hantavirus arrive in the Netherlands on May 12. Christoph Reichwein/dpa/Zuma A popular social media conspiracy theory about a recent cluster of Hantavirus cases claims that the word "hanta" means "scam," "fraud," or "nonsense" in "Hebrew slang." That's more or less where the theory ends and dark suggestion takes over. In New Mexico, Hantavirus cases virtually occur annually; last year, Santa Fe resident Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman, died from the illness. Even the root linguistic claim is completely wrong: the word "Hantavirus" comes from the Hantaan River in Korea, where the prototype virus was first identified.

The way the false notion has spread is an excellent demonstration not only of how a conspiracy theory is created and reinforced in real time, but of the ways tech platforms are either unable or unwilling to take action against coded hateful claims. Like false claims about the Talmud that circulated among some of the internet's most unpleasant masculinity influencers in the summer of 2024, the Hantavirus claims also rely on flatly wrong facts about Hebrew. YouTube, where the claims are present, but not as prevalent, has policies that forbid "certain types of misleading or deceptive content with serious risk of egregious harm," which the Hantavirus claims don't clearly fall into. False claims based on bad translation slip past policies targeting hate speech and medical misinformation.

Yet in the past two weeks, the "Hebrew" claim has spread wildly across Instagram, Threads, TikTok, X, and YouTube, through a fusillade of virtually identical posts, mostly shared by people who are neither public figures nor widely followed. A virtually identical AI summary also currently appears on Instagram when a user searches for the phrase "What does Hanta mean in Hebrew." The rumors spread so widely on X that they, as Snopes pointed out, became a trending topic on the platform. To drive the point home, his video includes audio from the Jewish folk song "Hava Nagila." Interestingly, the claims have spread widely even as very few recognizable public figures have engaged. JP Sears, a far-right comedian, has posted versions of the claim on both X and Facebook, but at just over 200,000 views apiece, he's done scarcely better than that hunting influencer.

One of the most successful versions on Instagram, from a New Age influencer calling herself Divinely Sierra, has garnered over two million views. While the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment, under Elon Musk, X maintains nominal policies against "hateful conduct." Experts have found what one study called a "consistent spike" in hate speech after Musk bought the company in 2022.