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26 Aug, 4 tweets, 2 min read
New + exclusive with @BrandyZadrozny:

Antivaxx Facebook groups have become obsessed with a telemedicine app that prescribes ivermectin online.

Turns out the site is American Frontline Doctors, the pro-Trump group whose founder stormed the Capitol on 1/6.
nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
You'll probably remember America's Frontline Doctors from their viral stunt retweeted by Trump last year, claiming hydroxychloroquine "cured" COVID.

Well, now they're now the go-to telemedicine providers for ivermectin-seekers in Facebook groups.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news… Image
Here's part of an intake form for a doctor on SpeakWithAnMD, the site partnering with America's Frontline Doctors that antivaxxers swear by to get ivermectin.

"Which medication do you prefer?" it asks.

The options:
Ivermectin
Hydroxychloroquine
Not Sure

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news… Image
In Facebook groups, antivaxxers steer each other to ivermectin-friendly telemedicine sites like SpeakWithAnMD.

The naming of one 25,000-member ivermectin Facebook group, Ivermectin MD Team, leads users to believe they're talking to doctors. They're not.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…

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More from @oneunderscore__

Ben Collins Profile picture
15 Sep
Quick thread:

Here's the deal about this much hyped Saturday's "Justice for January 6" rally.

Users on the extremist forums that hyped the rally-turned-riot on January 6 are not so hot on this one.

They're telling each other not to go, fearing it's a honeypot from the feds.
In the days before January 6th, sites like TheDonald and 4chan were littered with pictures of people boarding planes, posting pictures of guns, their hotel rooms, even maps of the tunnels beneath the Capitol.

They're calling 9/18 an "FBI rally." You mostly see posts like this: Image
Pro-Trump extremist boards have basically conspiracy theory'd themselves into inactivity.

Everything is "glowing," their word for a setup. Everything's a "false flag" or "honeypot."

They realize now their own rhetoric has put them in a bit of a bind. Image
Read 8 tweets
Ben Collins Profile picture
13 Sep
Can't stress how wild the ivermectin Facebook groups have become. So many people insisting to each other to never go to an ER, in part because they might not get ivermectin, but sometimes because they fear nurses are killing them on purpose "for the insurance money."
The ivermectin Facebook groups are becoming fully anti-western medicine spaces, replete with the concept that ERs are killing you, maybe intentionally.

It's just a constant stream of DIY vitamin therapies and new, seemingly random antiviral drugs every day — but not the vaccine.
The ivermectin Facebook groups also offer a window into how pervasive antivaxx COVID "treatment" videos are on TikTok.

The groups serve as a de facto aggregator for antivaxx TikTok, a space that is enormous but inherently unquantifiable to researchers.
Read 5 tweets
Ben Collins Profile picture
27 Aug
Over the last 48 hours, Reddit users have rebelled against the site's executives, who reiterated they wouldn't step in on COVID disinformation.

They're now flooding the Ivermectin subreddit with scientific information.

And, also, anti-horse paste memes. Here are the best.
Image
Image
Read 6 tweets
Ben Collins Profile picture
26 Aug
A quick thread:


A lot of people have asked me this week: Where did this ivermectin obsession come from? Who could possibly benefit from it?

Most importantly, why did my antivaxx aunt start eating horse goo from the tractor store?

It’s complicated, but here are some answers.
First off, they really are eating horse dewormer. It tastes terrible. Some mix it into jam to eat it on toast.

Others have asked about... more drastic actions. After all, they think ivermectin horse gel will their life, and their doctor won’t prescribe it.

How did we get here?
Let's flash back to last year.

Remember those pro-Trump doctors who had an extremely viral video that said hydroxychloroquine “cured” COVID-19?

Then-President Trump retweeted it. It had millions of views before it was pulled from Facebook.

That was America’s Frontline Doctors.
Read 17 tweets
Ben Collins Profile picture
20 Aug
Quick thread:

The suspect in today’s standoff rattled off a bunch of conspiracies on Facebook Live on his way to DC. Election fraud, Trump reinstatement, weird stuff about coins.

One, though, seemed personal.

Afghan refugees would get free healthcare, he said, and he doesn't.
Ray Roseberry, the suspect in the DC standoff, said he went to get stem cell treatment this week, but couldn’t. His insurance didn’t cover it.

He said his wife had cancer that needed surgery. Her insurance didn’t cover it.

Then he blamed refugees and immigrants.
On his way to the standoff, Roseberry complained about letting in immigrants from Mexico and Afghanistan. He said that there wasn’t free healthcare “for us,” but falsely claimed the undocumented would get what he couldn’t for free.
Read 6 tweets
Ben Collins Profile picture
22 Jul
Quick thread: I don't think most people know what antivaxx posts on Facebook really look like.

That's good. Why would you?

But I think people assume it's Suzy Turmeric plaintively yelling at you about the microchip, and it’s not.

It looks like this. Like code. Or gibberish. Image
Antivaxxers are calling themselves something, anything else on Facebook.

Once they change their group name, the adapt their whole vocabulary to fit it.

Here’s a list of codewords for the group of people who don’t “go dancing” — or won’t get the vaxx.

Pizza. Beer. Moana. Image
Antivaxx codewords have two purposes:

Most importantly, they stay on Facebook. They’re still a community.

But it also offers a sense of belonging, a secret code, a sense of mischief. People feel like they’re getting away with something, part of an ingroup. Image
Read 10 tweets

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