Canary Mission
Canary Mission is an anonymously run doxing website established in 2014 that publishes the personal information of students, professors, and organizations that it describes as anti-Israel or antisemitic, focusing primarily on people at North American universities.
Canary Mission's published materials have been described as a blacklist and its tactics compared to McCarthyism. Critics have described it as weaponizing the accusation of antisemitism in order to delegitimize or silence opposition to Zionism or criticism of Israel.
Profiles are publicly-available online and intended for wide use, and Canary Mission may actively send them to employers. Known users of the profiles include Israeli intelligence organizations Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Shin Bet, which interrogate and deny entry to American citizens. In March 2025, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other US federal agents detained and attempted to deport multiple international students with Canary Mission profiles.
Activities
According to its website, Canary Mission compiles profiles of students, professors, and organizations that "promote hatred of the US, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses". Profiles are constructed using public information such as social media and often contain detailed information. According to The Forward, "The site's profiles appear to be based entirely on open source intelligence that could be gathered by anyone with a computer." Some profiles document prominent white supremacists, including Identity Evropa members and Goyim Defense League members. Canary Mission has an "Ex-Canary" process where profiled individuals can request to have their profile removed from the website if they write an apology essay that can be published on the site.2017–2018
In December 2017, Canary Mission reported on what it alleged were antisemitic tweets posted by students associated with Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at McMaster University. The tweets were written between 2011 and 2017 and contained support for Adolf Hitler as well as calls for the death of Israel and Zionists. SPHR, in response, said it "condemns all forms of anti-Semitism within our organization", and that the referenced comments were "intolerable in every sense". The university actively reviewed the "disturbing social media post", but did not publish the results of its review since "it is not our practice to provide details of any actions taken or sanctions applied with regard to individual students".In February 2018, Twitter briefly suspended Canary Mission's account, for exposing a 2017 tweet by a pro-Palestinian activist that "modified Adele's lyrics to say 'Set Fire to the Jews. According to Twitter, they made an error in blocking Canary.
In 2018, The Intercept reported that the website was adding students to its lists immediately following their participation in Students for Justice in Palestine activities.
In April 2018, during a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign at George Washington University, flyers with Canary Mission's logo were strewn around the university, along with other flyers denouncing a planned student senate vote. On the day of the vote, two adult men wearing canary costumes performed a dance in the lobby of the building where the vote was taking place. In September 2018, Canary Mission released a report on the vote highlighting antisemitic and anti-Israel tactics used to promote the vote.
In May 2018, Canary Mission released a report on social media posts by Students for Justice in Palestine chapter members at Florida State University, saying that 36% of the social media posts by SJP members were "endorsements or promotion of terror as well as calls for intifada and violence against Jews". The FSU SJP chapter subsequently released a statement writing that they "entirely condemn and denounce the racist, anti-Black, and anti-Semitic statements made by some of the individuals who were previous students and members of our SJP chapter", and commenting that some of the social media posts were "legitimate criticisms of Israeli governmental policies and practices, even though they are presented as anti-Semitic." According to Canary Mission, FSU SJP's response did not condemn social media posts that "called for intifada and violence against Jews".
2019
In January 2019, Lara Kollab, a medical resident at the Cleveland Clinic, was fired over antisemitic social media posts documented by Canary Mission. Kollab's posts included threats to give Jewish people the wrong medication. Kollab also called Jewish people "dogs" and said the Holocaust was "exaggerated." In 2020, the State Medical Board of Ohio permanently barred Kollab from practicing medicine.2022
In June 2022, Canary Mission published a profile on Ismail Quran, a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio, who allegedly posted antisemitic hate speech to social media. Quran had been honored with a police officer of the year award before coming under investigation when news of his social media posts broke.The mayor of Cleveland Justin M. Bibb and the Cleveland chief of police Wayne Drummond released a statement in August 2022 that said "We are frustrated and disappointed that no charges can be filed against Officer Ismail Quran, despite extensive internal investigations by the Cleveland Division of Police, the City Prosecutor, and the Law Department."
2024
In February 2024, neo-Nazi Michael Weaver, a member of the Goyim Defense League, lost a libel lawsuit that he filed and was forced to pay the defendant $20,000 in legal fees. The defendant had reportedly written in an online review that a "neo-Nazi" and "member of the KKK" who is a "known felon of hate crimes" was denouncing her business. Weaver's antisemitic views were documented in a Canary Mission profile, and the judge ruled that the defendant's inferences were "reasonable". Weaver lost the case.In February 2024, Canary Mission published a report showing collaboration between Within Our Lifetime and Decolonize This Place. The report alleged that Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of WOL, and Amin Husain, the founder of DTP, were responsible for the unrest in New York City following the October 7 attacks in Israel. Examples include a protest outside of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Nova Exhibition, a memorial installation detailing the attacks at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023. An attendee at the Nova Protest waved a flag with Hezbollah's logo. The report further alleges that these disruptions followed a premeditated plan that pre-dated the attacks in Israel. The report also included social media posts from Kiswani supporting the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli civilians.
In July 2024, the Chicago branch of the Council on American–Islamic Relations attempted to sue Canary Mission on behalf of Kinza Khan. Khan was the subject of a viral video where she was allegedly involved in tearing down posters of Israelis being held captive by Hamas. Canary Mission subsequently profiled Khan. Khan was the plaintiff in two lawsuits against Canary Mission but both suits were dismissed by the judge. CAIR is also representing Laila Ali who was reportedly fired after video surfaced of her tearing down Hamas hostage posters.
Former New York University professor Amin Husain said: "One of the best biographies I have is on Canary Mission. It's endless. The citations are better than I could ever imagine. And everything they cite to is true."
An article by The Intercept from 2024 interviewed a number of professors that were fired or faced disciplinary action from their universities. The article implies that Canary Mission profiles played a role in the disciplinary action, and many of the professors interviewed have profiles on the site.
2025
Various foreign students with Canary Mission profiles have been arrested under the Trump administration in March 2025, including Mahmoud Khalil of Columbia University and Rümeysa Öztürk of Tufts. Öztürk's name and photo were posted to Canary Mission shortly after her only known pro-Palestine activism, co-writing an op-ed in the student newspaper that criticized the administration's handling of student demands such as acknowledgement of Palestinian genocide and divestment from Israel companies. A Canary Mission's profile of Mapheze Saleh may have influenced the arrest of her husband, Georgetown University graduate student Badar Khan Suri. According to a lawyer for Suri, he had no criminal record and was arrested because his father-in-law was documented as a former adviser to a Hamas leader.In July 2025, testimony by a senior official with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations in federal court confirmed that a Department of Homeland Security team created a target list of anti-Israeli student protestors that was largely based on the Canary Mission lists. Analysts would then do further research and pass on some cases to the Department of State.
In addition, a lawsuit was filed by a group of Israeli citizens in March 2025 in New York against Nerdeen Kiswani as the head of Within Our Lifetime, Maryam Alwan as the representative for Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia University, Cameron Jones as the representative of Jewish Voice for Peace at Columbia-Barnard, and Mahmoud Khalil as the representative of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, known as CUAD. The suit alleged that the defendants were guilty of "aiding and abetting Hamas' continuing acts of international terrorism." Canary Mission profiles and reports were used as evidence in the lawsuit.
Collaboration with government authorities
In 2023, Ha'aretz reported that Israeli intelligence organizations, such as the Shin Bet, use Canary Mission profiles. The Ministry of Strategic Affairs used a Canary Mission profile during the attempted deportation proceedings against Lara Alqasem. The Israeli government has been accused of using Canary Mission data at border control. In March 2025, multiple foreign students with Canary Mission profiles were detained by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement for allegations of supporting terror. The FBI has targeted activists profiled by Canary Mission.In July 2025, a senior official from the Department of Homeland Security testified in a federal trial that his team used Canary Mission as a source to investigate a number of student protesters that were foreign nationals. Court records from a federal lawsuit revealed that senior Trump administration officials relied heavily on Canary Mission in order to identify foreign students and academics who violated the terms of their visa.