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follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
@oneunderscore__
Aug 19, 2019 • 14 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
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So @BrandyZadrozny and I have been working on a story for about five months. It's almost definitely the wildest story I've ever covered. Sounds like it's coming out early tomorrow.
@BrandyZadrozny Well, here we go.
@BrandyZadrozny New from me + @brandyzadrozny:

The Epoch Times is the largest pro-Trump spender on Facebook.

It's run by a religious sect that believes judgment day, which sends those they label “communists” to Hell⁠, is 30 years late—and that Trump is making it happen
nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
@BrandyZadrozny It's impossible to get through the scope of this story in a few tweets, but I'm going to try.
@BrandyZadrozny The Epoch Times is sometimes the most-viewed news creator on all of Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.

In April, it outranked ANY other news outlet in video views.

It's run by people who “believe that Trump was sent by heaven to destroy the Communist Party”

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Image
@BrandyZadrozny Epoch Times' senior editorial are quietly Falun Gong practitioners, a religious group now based in a compound in Dragon Springs, NY.

At the compound, use of medicines is discouraged, and visa-based arranged relationships are common, ex-practitioners say.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Image
@BrandyZadrozny The Epoch Times hired non-Falun Gong members to cover the 2016 election.

“It’s like we were supposed to be fighting so-called liberal propaganda by making our own,” said a former Trump campaign reporter.

He said it was like working at a troll farm.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Image
@BrandyZadrozny The Epoch Times' senior editorial staff, sometimes the largest video publisher on all of social media, quietly runs one of the largest Qanon channels on YouTube.

It has over 33 million views, including “13 BLOODLINES & their Diabolical End Game.”

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Image
@BrandyZadrozny The Epoch Times, whose staff believe judgment day is 30 years late and Trump is helping it go down, has allies in the White House.

It had a 40-minute Trump Tower interview with Lara Trump this year. The president's FB page shared them a half-dozen times.
nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
@BrandyZadrozny No one on Facebook spends more promoting Donald Trump than the Epoch Times. Millions were dropped on 11,000 ads in the last six months, more than most Democratic presidential candidates.

They use the ad money to push Qanon-lite.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Image
@BrandyZadrozny But wait! Isn't The Epoch Times a non-profit dedicated to providing "information to Chinese communities to help immigrants assimilate into American society"?

How and why are they spending millions to boost Trump on Facebook?

Good question!

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Image
@BrandyZadrozny When we reached out to The Epoch Times for comment on this story, they responded by publishing an article called "Our Response to NBC News’ Inappropriate Questions."

It included this line.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Image
@BrandyZadrozny Not knowing what was in our story, conservative figureheads quickly rallied around The Epoch Times.

This is a Devin Nunes tweet linking to their response to us.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Image
@BrandyZadrozny Another Epoch Times mystery we couldn't figure out:

On September 12th of last year, an Epoch Times photographer handed Donald Trump a manila envelope as he exited the East Room of the White House.

washingtonpost.com/politics/white…

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More from @oneunderscore__

follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
Nov 16
Hi friends!

I wanted to give a quick update on The Onion’s purchase of InfoWars, which we can’t wait to relaunch as the dumbest site on the internet.

Long and short of it: We won the bid and — you're not going to believe it — the previous InfoWars folks aren't taking it well.
On Thursday, the person overseeing the auction told us that The Onion’s bid for InfoWars, along with the Connecticut Sandy Hook families, won.

We haven’t heard anything that changed that — except, of course, from the guys currently running InfoWars, doing InfoWars stuff.
There was a status conference with the judge overseeing the auction on Thursday shortly after we were deemed winners.

The judge had some questions about process and assets. We’re glad he’s doing that, since our bid with the families is clearly the best and transparency is even better.
Read 7 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
Oct 27, 2023
Didn’t see much mainstream credentialed press covering this, so I’m at Grand Central. Definitely still hundreds here at this protest calling for a ceasefire.
A lot of people still inside Grand Central Terminal, cops saying the whole terminal is shut down, telling people to head up to 125th St to take the trains headed out of the city. Every entrance blocked off.
Not a ton of people dipping off from the outside. Occasional person will yell occasional pro-Israel (or just general frustration at shutting down the terminal) at the crowd, but it’s very calm right now, at least on the outside.
Read 12 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
Oct 6, 2023
This is:

1) An article of my recent Bluesky posts, so be careful out there.

2) Very weird, and seems to shame me for disclosing that I have depression from the work that I do. Image
Actually a profoundly disgusting thing to do, @arielzilber and @nypost. You should be really ashamed of yourselves.
@arielzilber @nypost I do have depression from getting bombarded with nonstop death threats from actual neonazis.

I see a therapist for it and it helps. It's helped me cope with a very difficult job.

My current editor and colleagues on this beat have helped me through it, and I'm grateful.
Read 5 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
Oct 3, 2023
What’s going on with Elon Musk, and why is he doing this to Twitter?

I spent the last few months digging into it.

I found a pretty big clue.
New from me:

What was Elon Musk’s strategy for Twitter? A game plan published by a fired Trump White House staffer provides a clue.

nbcnews.com/tech/was-elon-…
I'll be talking about Elon and this story on @maddow tonight at 9 p.m.

There's so much to talk discuss. Join us!
Read 5 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
May 25, 2023
How stores work.
Yes, this video is about how dumb the Target controversy is, how much the people pushing it are actively lying to people, and how some mainstream outlets are eating it all up.
Featuring this very good tweet.
Read 4 tweets
follow @bencollins on bluesky Profile picture
May 12, 2023
Thread of new reporting:

For the last couple of weeks, if you searched "cat" on Twitter, the search box would autocomplete to "cat in a blender."

The video you would see when you clicked through appeared to show a kitten being slaughtered.

How did this happen? I found out. Image
Last week, a London mom named Laura Clemons came home to her son asking her if she had Twitter.

When she asked why, her 11-year-old son said, “There’s something about a cat in a blender.” He'd heard about it on the playground.

She went on Twitter and saw... exactly that.
Clemons reached out to Twitter on May 3, asking how preteens on the playground all knew about the animal torture video on Twitter.

She received no response. Image
Read 8 tweets

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