Unprecedented Islamophobia and Hate Campaign on Social Media Against Zohran Mamdani
The report paints a disturbing picture of the hate, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and anti-communist propaganda being spread on social media against Zohran Mamdani. |
New Delhi: The American non-profit organization Equality Labs released a shocking 89-page report on November 4, 2025, titled "Tracing Online Hate Against Zohran Mamdani." The report paints a disturbing picture of the hate, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and anti-communist propaganda being spread on social media against Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York City Mayor.
According to the report, a total of 17.1 million social media posts related to Mamdani were found in 2025, of which 1.15 million were explicitly Islamophobic. These posts had a total reach of over 150 billion. In addition, 1.43 million posts labeled him a communist, reaching over 330.2 billion people.
Equality Labs manually analyzed 500 posts across more than 12 platforms (Instagram, X, Reddit, YouTube, Bluesky, News, Meta, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitch, Snapchat, etc.) from June 2025 (after his primary victory) to October. The analysis found that:
• 80.8% of the posts were Islamophobic.
• 7.2% called him a terrorist.
• 5.4% demanded his deportation or revocation of citizenship.
• 9% labeled him anti-Hindu.
• 25.3% labeled him pro-Hamas or anti-Semitic.
Mamdani, the son of Gujarati-origin Muslim scholar Mahmood Mamdani and Padma Bhushan award-winning filmmaker Mira Nair, is a Democratic Socialist. They support policies such as rent freezes, free bus service, free childcare, increased funding for public schools, city-controlled grocery stores, protection of LGBTQIA+ rights, and raising corporate taxes.
1/🚨Our new report, “Tracing Online Hate Against Zohran Mamdani”, exposes the massive scale of hate, disinformation, and coordinated narrative attacks targeting mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani during the 2025 New York City Mayoral Race. https://t.co/nkt1STB0Vs pic.twitter.com/APGCdC4h4F
— Equality Labs (@EqualityLabs) November 4, 2025
The report states that the “Muslim invasion” narrative is fueled by post-9/11 right-wing ideology, which consistently portrays Muslim New Yorkers as “outsiders.” Mamdani's criticism of Modi and Netanyahu (comments on the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Ayodhya Ram temple movement) was presented as anti-Hindu and anti-India. The New Jersey-based organization Indian Americans for Cuomo even flew a banner from an airplane: “Save NYC from Global Intifada. Reject Mamdani.”
Under the umbrella of red-baiting, 23.8% of the posts labeled him a communist or socialist extremist. US President Donald Trump said in July, “We have to arrest him… We don’t want communists in the country.”
The report revealed that 45 Republican officials (from 18 states) and 26 international politicians (from 14 countries, including India, Israel, and the UK) amplified the hate against Mamdani.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder of Equality Labs, said, “This digital hate has now become a sophisticated ecosystem that targets anti-racist and pro-worker candidates. Understanding these attacks is crucial to protecting democracy.”
