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Brandy Zadrozny Profile picture
@BrandyZadrozny
Aug 19, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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One more thing about Facebook's Reach Report yesterday. It really drove home the point that the posts with the most reach aren't political or news but stupid memes, animal videos, recipes, etc. about.fb.com/news/2021/08/w…
The limited data actually shows how this content is weaponized to spread misinfo (and evade FB's enforcement). Among the top 10 links on Facebook is a subscription link to the Epoch Times — the wildly successful right-wing (cultish) misinformation outlet. nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
How did the Epoch Times—an outlet barred from Facebook advertising for repeatedly violating its policies—get its subscription link to all those people? A search in CrowdTangle shows us that it's through viral posts about "cute toddlers," dogs, and homeless people getting cash.
The top post with that link was liked, shared, and commented on 3.5 million times. It wasn't about far-right news or covid misinformation, but puppies being freed from some rubble. Crying emoji.
I can't tell how many times the post was *seen* because Facebook doesn't share that data in CrowdTangle and only offers the top 20 posts in a grading-their-own-homework report. I asked for more data, but was told, "No." From a Facebook spokesperson:

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More from @BrandyZadrozny

Brandy Zadrozny Profile picture
Jan 9
Exclusive: I obtained testimony from the Dec. trial where Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, describes an incident in June where he smashed a car window, is dragged 100 yards, and tased a Guatemalan man 10 times.

"I feared for my life," he said. ms.now/news/jonathan-…Image
His testimony also gives new biographical details: Indiana National Guard, served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 as a machine gunner, then a Border Patrol agent in Texas. In 2015 he joined ICE targeting “higher value targets,” and is a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Image
This specific phrasing is very very common in these cases: officers say the escalation in violence is self-defense, that they “feared for their life” when a car was “weaponized" against them. From Cato's @foxmike90 today: ms.now/opinion/ice-mi…
Read 4 tweets
Brandy Zadrozny Profile picture
Oct 30, 2025
Got a new story about a little-known HHS agency with a massive job: the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR).
ASPR gave us Operation Warp Speed.
Now it's being run by a conspiracy theorist who calls those vaccines “genocide.” msnbc.com/msnbc/meet-ant…
ASPR preps for & responds to national emergencies: pandemics, terror attacks, natural disasters. But it has no Senate-confirmed leader (or nominee). Under RFK Jr., this is common. More than a third of top roles at HHS are vacant, critics say, by design—to consolidate power. Image
RFK Jr. put Knox in charge of ASPR, an agency he doesn’t think much of. In his widely panned, paranoid, (best-selling) book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Kennedy suggested ASPR was a Big Pharma tool that planned the pandemic. Here’s how he describes the ASPR in Trump’s first admin: Image
Read 9 tweets
Brandy Zadrozny Profile picture
Aug 15, 2025
I spent the week tracing how @SecKennedy canceled $500 million in mRNA research and reporting on a(nother) very chaotic week inside HHS.

Let me introduce you to the fringe doctors, anti-vaccine activists, and MAHA operatives behind the mRNA “debacle.”
First up: Secretary Kennedy, who once again rolled out a major anti-vaccine policy change via X post. He offered no evidence for his claims that mRNA vaccines were ineffective. No coordination with the White House. And all while on a MAHA tour of Alaska. Image
Enter Gray Delany. A MAHA true believer with MAGA credentials and RFK Jr. campaign ties.
He’d just been hired as director of MAHA implementation and external affairs—essentially a bridge in the HHS comms shop for a fractured base. Image
Read 12 tweets
Brandy Zadrozny Profile picture
Jun 4, 2025
I went to Seminole, Texas, after a measles outbreak tore through. Came back with a story about anti-vaccine activists at RFK Jr.-founded @ChildrensHD who exploited the crisis, doctors and public health officials working to contain it — and a community left to bear the cost. 🧵
The county had some of the lowest vaccination rates in the US, and rumors were spreading — some private schools had closed. When measles took hold, it spread fast, especially among Mennonite families who recently avoided vaccines. Image
For most Mennonite families who avoided vaccines, it wasn’t about religion. Their hesitancy came from experience — a disabled child, a search for answers, encounters with anti-vaccine doctors. These were called “mighty, mighty testimonies.” Image
Read 10 tweets
Brandy Zadrozny Profile picture
Jan 24, 2025
The whole story behind RFK Jr. & Samoa's measles crisis has never been reported. He wanted to study a "natural experiment" of unvaccinated kids.

“I can’t imagine anything less ethical or more cruel.”
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/r…
Samoa was on the brink of crisis. Vaccine rates had plummeted measles was spreading globally. Kennedy and CHD chief informatics officer (the doc behind a notoriously bad study in the U.S.) went with an offer: a data system that would track the outcome of unvaxxed vs vaxxed kids. Image
As measles spread, RFK Jr. coordinated with a local anti-vaccine activist—connecting him with a group of anti-vaxx doctors in the U.S. to treat Samoa’s sick children with unproven cures. As hospitals filled with dying children, Kennedy's group promoted vitamins over vaccines. Image
Read 5 tweets
Brandy Zadrozny Profile picture
Oct 16, 2024
For the last many months, I've been watching a Russian propaganda operation that researchers call Storm 1516, poring over the work of what is in effect, a disinformation production company. nbcnews.com/specials/russi…
It’s basically the notorious Internet Research Agency troll farm’s pivot to video. They rely on faked videos laundered through international news sources and influencers to reach a U.S. audience.
These videos, many featuring fake confessions and whistleblowers, are absurd, like the recent one from a park ranger claiming to have witnessed Kamala Harris kill a baby rhino on safari. They usually flop. nbcnews.com/specials/russi…Image
Read 5 tweets

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