New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing pointed questions about his relationship with a Qatar-based media outlet that the Anti-Defamation League accuses of routinely trafficking in antisemitic conspiracy theories, and his quiet decision to unfollow the outlet only adds to the scrutiny.
Mamdani sat for an interview with Uncivilized Media in September 2023, and clips from that conversation were shared as collaborative posts on Instagram, appearing on both his account and the outlet's page. As of July 24, 2026, Fox News Digital found Mamdani was still following Uncivilized Media on Instagram. Three days later, on July 27, he was no longer listed as a follower.
Neither Mamdani's office nor Uncivilized Media responded to requests for comment. The mayor offered no public explanation for the unfollow, or for the years-long association that preceded it.
Oren Segal, the ADL's Senior Vice President of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence, told Fox News Digital that Uncivilized Media routinely promotes "classic tropes about Jews" in its programming. The ADL and other experts on online antisemitism accuse the outlet of producing content that charges Jews and Israelis with seeking global domination, being inherently colonialist, and controlling the media. In one July 2026 video, the outlet accused Israelis of attempting to "colonize the world."
Segal was careful to note that neither he nor the ADL was accusing Mamdani of personally endorsing all of Uncivilized Media's content. But the association itself, he argued, carries weight.
"When one appears on any platform, it kind of normalizes the rest of the content that is out there."
Segal pressed further, framing the issue as one of basic accountability for a mayor who governs a city with one of the largest Jewish populations in the world:
"What we are saying is that the connections between him and this particular digital entity raise questions for many New Yorkers who are curious as to whether the rest of the programming on there is something he believes in."
He called on Mamdani to publicly denounce the outlet's antisemitic content, a step the mayor has not taken.
"If Mayor Mamdani claims that he is building a better New York when there's many Jewish residents who consistently feel unheard, I think it's fair to ask him to clarify whether this program, that he has appeared on, represents his views on Israelis more broadly in terms of their content."
The first interview clip, posted on Instagram on September 11, 2023, featured Mamdani describing the Palestinian issue as "central to my identity." In that conversation, he drew a direct line between his upbringing and his political worldview.
"We say we care about freedom and justice and self-determination and yet, for some reason, we draw a line when it comes to Palestinians."
Mamdani, who moved to New York at age seven, also said his background shaped his perspective on the conflict in ways that differ from the mainstream American view:
"When you grow up as someone especially in the Third World, you have a very different understanding of the Palestinian struggle. It is one that is framed in terms of empathy and solidarity."
A second clip, posted days after the first, showed Mamdani discussing the intersection of Muslim identity and progressive politics. He identified himself as a socialist and "not simply progressive," and argued that attempts to cast Muslim values as incompatible with progressive principles were reductive.
"What we also have now is a fight over what it means to be Muslim and what those Muslim values are. And I think that there is an attempt to frame those values [in opposition] to certain core progressive tenets."
"This idea of a single story that Muslims stand in opposition to queer rights, it attempts to flatten out a community whose history goes beyond hundreds of years in more than hundreds of countries."
Those clips resurfaced after Mamdani's victory in the 2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, drawing fresh attention to the outlet that hosted them.
Mamdani's ties to Uncivilized Media do not exist in a vacuum. In a video released in recent weeks, the mayor announced he did not have the legal authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then used the moment to accuse Netanyahu of being "a war criminal" and "the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people." That statement drew swift condemnation from Israeli leaders across the political spectrum.
The term "genocide" is Mamdani's characterization, not a legal finding by any court or international body. But the mayor's willingness to deploy that language, from the office of the nation's largest city, reflects a pattern of statements that go well beyond standard progressive criticism of Israeli policy.
Meanwhile, the city Mamdani governs has seen a troubling rise in hate crimes targeting Jewish residents during his tenure. For a mayor who claims to be building a more inclusive city, the gap between rhetoric and results is hard to ignore.
The timeline tells its own story. Mamdani gave Uncivilized Media an interview in 2023. Those clips lived on both accounts as collaborative posts. He continued following the outlet on Instagram through at least July 24, 2026, well after the ADL and other experts had flagged its content as antisemitic.
Then, between July 24 and July 27, the follow disappeared. No statement. No explanation. No public break with the outlet's content.
Segal and the ADL have offered Mamdani a clear path: publicly denounce the antisemitic conspiracy theories that Uncivilized Media promotes. So far, the mayor has chosen silence, or, at most, a quiet click of the unfollow button, visible only to those checking.
That silence is itself a choice. The ADL is not asking Mamdani to renounce his views on Palestinian self-determination. It is asking him to draw a line between legitimate advocacy and content that accuses Jews of seeking global domination. The fact that the mayor of New York City cannot, or will not, draw that line should concern every New Yorker, regardless of background.
Mamdani's broader record raises the same question from different angles. His administration produced a taxpayer-funded video that targeted a Jewish landlord, and his governance style has drawn scrutiny after he purged business leaders from a key advisory board. Each episode, taken alone, might be explained away. Together, they form a pattern that the ADL's Segal is right to flag.
Mamdani's rise is part of a broader shift within the Democratic Party, where self-described socialists and far-left figures have gained ground in competitive primaries and now hold real power. The question is no longer whether that wing of the party exists. It is whether its leaders will be held to the same standards of accountability that apply to everyone else.
When the mayor of America's largest city can associate for years with an outlet the ADL calls antisemitic, unfollow it without a word, and face no real consequence, the standard has already slipped.
