An armed attack on a federal building in New York led right-wing social media networks to launch an organized digital lynching campaign against Mayor Zahran Mamdani. On July 20, former soldier Andrew Arabaca carried out an attack at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, wounding three people.
The attacker approached the building with a banner reading 'ICE Get Out of Our Streets,' poured flammable liquid, and opened fire. Immediately after the incident, right-wing and anti-immigrant accounts jumped in, adopting a narrative that directly blamed Mayor Mamdani rather than focusing on the perpetrator and motive of the attack.
Analysis reveals coordinated campaign
An analysis by Al Jazeera's open-source intelligence unit showed that the campaign had a coordinated structure. Between July 20 and 22, approximately 5,000 posts on X were examined, and it was determined that around 2,000 interactions occurred within the same network.
The campaign began with low-engagement accounts making the first posts targeting Mamdani minutes after the incident. Then, accounts with larger followings amplified and spread this narrative.
Three main narratives emerged in the campaign
According to the analysis, three main narratives emerged: that criticizing ICE incites violence, that Mamdani was presented as a symbol of the radical left and 'sanctuary cities,' and that the mayor's identity and political background were used to question his belonging to New York.
Some posts used terms like 'communist,' 'Islamist socialist,' and 'third-worlder' for Mamdani. Additionally, a baseless claim was circulated that the mayor had tried to establish contact with the Iranian government, bypassing the State Department.
Influential accounts and dissemination strategy
In the examined network, seven accounts—Sizzle_sarah, Ginamilan, Trishaposner, Republicans, Clerpatriot, ericdaugh, and gunthereagleman—were found to be particularly influential. These accounts took content produced by smaller accounts and recirculated it in harsher language.
Tom Homan, a former Trump administration official responsible for border and immigration issues, also provided official backing to the campaign with statements targeting Mamdani and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. Homan claimed that Democrats had labeled ICE as 'Nazi' and criticized their condemnations of violence as 'too late.'
Throughout the campaign, an old video recording of Mamdani saying that ICE 'frightened Americans' became the most used 'evidence.' However, neither this video nor any other posts provided any proof that the mayor had a direct connection to the attack.
