Animal Emojis Are Reviving Nazi-Era Tropes Online 

Bar chart comparing antisemitic social-media posts that contain four animal emojis. Rat posts jump to ≈40 k (+5,700 %), pig to ≈60 k (+1,300 %), snake to ≈12 k (+570 %), and octopus to ≈7 k (+5,800 %) in Jan 2023–May 2025 versus Aug 2020–Dec 2022.

Animal emojis once weaponized by Nazi propaganda are resurging in today’s antisemitic online rhetoric. Our latest analysis reveals explosive growth in rat, pig, snake and octopus emojis used to dehumanize Jews across mainstream platforms.