A social media account on X has started doxxing university students in the US, accusing them of “exploiting their visas and fully funded scholarships to incite harm against Jews”.
StopAntisemitism, a widely-followed X account that says it is “fighting antisemitism” on social media, has joined the wave of doxxing happening against US university students for “aligning with terror organisations like Hamas”.
On 30 March, the account shared a post listing three students, their names, school affiliations, and pictures, asking its followers to report these individuals to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). It also shared individual links where people could report the students to ICE.
The post comes at a time when many activists and university students, such as Mahmoud Khalil from Columbia University and Rumeysa Ozturk from Tufts University, were detained by US law enforcement officials for their pro-Palestinian activism, whether in the form of protests or with their writing.
Many online slammed the post, including the prominent rabbi David Mivasair, saying that the StopAntisemitism account will “will fuel antisemitism”.
Many Jewish social media users argued that this doxxing approach by the Stop Antisemitism account is “bringing fascism to America” while derailing “academic freedom and human rights” in the country.
The administration of US President Donald Trump, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has already revoked the visas of at least 300 students.
Three university officials in the US have also said that student residency information in a database that stores the foreign students’ residency statuses are being changed without their knowledge, according to a Zeteo report. The report says that, so far, targeted students have come predominantly from the Middle East and Muslim-majority countries.
Against the backdrop of these developments and the crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism across US universities, the Stop Antisemitism account’s post received widespread backlash, with many Jews accusing the account of “spitting on the graves of our ancestors”.
Established in 2018 to counter antisemitic attacks, Stop Antisemitism’s X account has become increasingly active amid Israel’s war on Gaza. The group frequently shares the social media accounts and workplace information of individuals it accuses of antisemitism with its audience of over 300,000 followers.
In recent days, many have called on the Trump administration to stop the crackdown on university students, with over 3,000 Jewish students and faculty members at universities nationwide signing a statement which condemned the administration’s crackdown on “campus antisemitism”.
The statement, titled “Not in Our Name”, denounced the government’s push to battle what it calls “antisemitism on college campuses” by targeting international students and faculty members who have demonstrated solidarity with Palestine or have criticised Israel.
In early March, ICE agents seized Columbia University student Khalil off the streets of New York for his involvement in student encampment protests at the university’s campus. Khalil is appealing the decision and denies claims made by Trump officials that he supports Hamas.
Similarly, ICE agents detained Badar Khan Suri, an Indian student at Georgetown University. Suri’s lawyers deny claims he supports Hamas, with a judge barring his deportation.
Last week, a judge ruled that Ozturk, the Tufts University student, could not be deported from the US without a court order.
In recent weeks, more than six individuals have been detained due to their pro-Palestinian statements and activism. Trump and Rubio have declared that the crackdown will persist until, in their words, “none of them are left”.
