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Hate speech often originates in the intellectual, political and media spheres before spreading online. A striking example of this process is the use of the term ‘Islamo-leftism’ which emerged in the early 2000s and gained significant media attention in France in 2020 and 2021. This article looks at the genesis and diffusion of the term in the media and in political discourse, before analysing its use on social media. Our diachronic analysis over a long period is based on a robust textometric and network analysis protocol applied to a corpus of press articles and tweets. We show how part of the Parisian press, particularly on the right, helped to popularize the term, first by opening its columns to reactionary ideologists, then by reporting political controversies in which the term was used to disqualify part of the left. At the same time, online far-right communities turned it into a weapon of hate propaganda.