⚡️ BREAKING: Uncovering the Next Layer of a Coordinated Campaign: A Closer Look into Orchestrated Harassment by Additional Perpetrators of the PubPeer Network Mob
🗂️📌 We have previously revealed how Perpetrators 1 and 2 target researchers and scientists through various false identities. Perpetrator 1, a financial advisor, with no scientific or academic credential, has explicitly confessed to operating under multiple aliases, one of which is Actinopolyspora biskrensis, responsible for 9,515 comments as of 1 April 2025 (a number that has since grown to 9,569 as of 17 April 2025). It is important to note that, by their own admission, this is only one of their many identities.
🗂️📌 We subsequently secured another significant written confession from Perpetrator 1, in which they confirmed knowing Hoya camphorifolia — a fraudulent anonymous account on PubPeer responsible for approximately 25,000 comments as of 1 April 2025. More crucially, they admitted in writing that the person behind Hoya camphorifolia also uses multiple false identities. We designate this individual as Perpetrator 3, and the two have acknowledged working together.
🧩 The first snapshot illustrates the close association between these individuals, with Perpetrator 1 referring to Perpetrator 3 by one of their false identities, Hoya camphorifolia. As stated in previous disclosures, we had already gathered compelling evidence of a high level of coordination between these two fraudulent actors, whose real identities are known to us. However, from a legal and investigative standpoint, obtaining an explicit confession and admission of guilt was critical.
🚨 This brings us to the pseudonym Clare Francis, known for having posted thousands of comments on PubPeer. The aggression and threats associated with this alias were best summarized by @TomReller of @ElsevierConnect:
“Generally speaking, Clare was rather disruptive at first, but by now most editors and publishing teams have an approach in place when it comes to managing Clare’s demands and threats.”
🧩 As shown in the second snapshot, Perpetrator 1 has disclosed an important operational detail about Clare Francis:
“Posts under a unique PubPeer name for each paper.”
This means that Clare Francis, already a false identity, operates through a large number of additional fraudulent aliases on PubPeer. Below is a small sample of these accounts, along with their number of PubPeer entries as of 17 April 2025:
Digitalis ciliata — 20 entries
Cyclope pellucida — 1 entry
Calotis scapigera — 2 entries
Convolvulus dryadum — 6 entries
Acrotrema costatum — 1 entry
Daucus minusculus — 11 entries
Zeltnera quitensis — 4 entries
Bathysiphon flexilis — 2 entries
Greya variata — 6 entries
Zelandoperla decorata — 6 entries
Bolitoglossa morio — 5 entries
Apiomerus vexillarius — 9 entries
…and many more.
We could continue listing them, but it would quickly become monotonous due to the sheer number of fraudulent identities being operated by this individual, operating under a completely fabricated identity.
⚠️ This pattern of alias-driven harassment builds on a history of anonymity in scientific critique. In a 2011 Lab Times editorial (mathbabe.org/wp-content/upl…), @RetractionWatch co-founder @ivanoransky and @armarcus defended Clare Francis’s anonymous whistle-blowing. This defense may have emboldened Francis’s alleged escalation into a central figure in the PubPeer Network Mob, using aliases to harass researchers. Oransky, now a PubPeer board member, praised the platform in a 2022 tweet as vital to science correction (“difficult to imagine… science itself… without PubPeer”), raising questions about oversight as alleged abuses proliferate on PubPeer. Notably, the only comment on that tweet came from a PubPeer Network Mob member, whose identity and malicious activities are known to us and will be addressed as we reveal further pieces of this puzzle. They wrote, “In an ideal world PubPeer would be supported by the NIH, which would also take it very seriously… Alas, we don’t live in an ideal world...”, highlighting the Mob’s advocacy for unchecked influence (see the third snapshot).
🚨 Perpetrator 1 has referred to Clare Francis on their X account more than 40 times, revealing additional details about their close association, as evidenced in the fourth snapshot. This relationship takes on greater significance given their shared fixation on a prominent cancer researcher, Professor Wafik S. El-Deiry (@weldeiry), a physician-scientist, Director of @BrownUCancer, and Associate Dean at @BrownMedicine, @BrownUniversity.
🎓 Professor El-Deiry is widely recognized as one of the top cancer researchers in the United States, and he is currently nominated by the @POTUS @RobertKennedyJr @DrJBhattacharya team for the prestigious position of Director of the National Cancer Institute (@theNCI).
⚠️ Perpetrator 1 has attacked Professor El-Deiry on their X account numerous times, including 26 attacks just over the five-day period from 12–17 April 2025. Meanwhile, Clare Francis has shown an unrelenting obsession, sending over 100 emails to nearly every institution with which Professor El-Deiry is affiliated. And yes — as many have come to expect — threats are a standard part of Clare Francis’ conduct.
Among the many false accounts operated under the Clare Francis pseudonym is the anonymous identity Apiomerus vexillarius, which was created 8 months ago and has 9 entries on PubPeer, all targeting publications authored by Professor El-Deiry, as shown in the second snapshot.
The magnitude of threats, disrespect, harassment, and extortion endured by Professor El-Deiry at the hands of Perpetrator 1 and Clare Francis is simply unimaginable. On 15 April, Professor El-Deiry publicly shared via X a cluster of orchestrated attacks carried out by members of the PubPeer Network Mob. All of these attacks occurred within a 22-minute window, each calling for the retraction of his articles (See fifth snapshot; 📸 snapshots 5–8 are included in the continuation of this thread ⬇️)
🔔 This campaign of coordinated harassment began in May 2024, after the publication of a scientific article by Professor El-Deiry and his team in Oncotarget entitled:
“Transfected SARS-CoV-2 spike DNA for mammalian cell expression inhibits p53 activation of p21(WAF1), TRAIL Death Receptor DR5 and MDM2 proteins in cancer cells and increases cancer cell viability after chemotherapy exposure”
📌 As with previous cases we have documented, we at ScienceGuardians™ do not comment on the scientific content or conclusions of any paper. Our focus remains solely on exposing and addressing the orchestrated attacks, deceptive behaviors, and fraudulent tactics employed by members of the PubPeer Network Mob in their efforts to discredit researchers.
Since that publication, the harassment has intensified dramatically, with close to 60 of Professor El-Deiry’s papers targeted on PubPeer over the past 8 months.
🚨 Remember Perpetrator 4, referenced in the second snapshot, who was praised by Perpetrator 1 as “highly influential”? This individual operates one of the major sections of the PubPeer Network Mob, running a derogatory blog that is:
• Riddled with slander
• Filled with unsubstantiated accusations
• Saturated with mockery
• Framed with inflammatory language
This blog reflects a signature tactic employed by the PubPeer Network Mob: presenting partial truths to establish credibility, while subtly injecting misinformation, false accusations, and slander for strategic manipulation.
As shown in the sixth snapshot, Perpetrator 4’s blog post dated 17 May 2024 launched an attack on Professor El-Deiry’s Oncotarget paper as part of a lengthy post — marking the beginning of a series of eight coordinated blog attacks against him, all of which used inflammatory and mocking rhetoric.
Disrespect and ad hominem attacks are routine behavior among members of the PubPeer Network Mob. For example, in the seventh snapshot, Perpetrator 2 refers to Professor El-Deiry as “#BrownClown” (left image), and in another exchange with Perpetrator 1, both resort to vitriolic and defamatory language. In yet another attack, Perpetrator 2 falsely and publicly referred to both Professor Wafik El-Deiry (@weldeiry) and NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) as “rather dubious researchers” (bottom right image), further illustrating the persistent pattern of baseless personal smears aimed at discrediting respected figures in medicine and science.
We are deeply sorry that we must share these disturbing realities with the academic community, but the scale of defamation and targeted harassment cannot be overstated.
🔱 We, at ScienceGuardians™, have, on multiple occasions, invited members of the academic and research communities to join this initiative and become Science Guardians themselves. Following the launch of the ScienceGuardians™ platform in November 2024, we prioritized outreach to those most affected by campaigns of harassment and defamation led by members of the PubPeer Network Mob. Professor El-Deiry was placed among those at the top of this list and was one of the first scientists to register on the platform at scienceguardians.com, also sharing it publicly on X.
⚠️ Since then, members of the PubPeer Mob have tried to falsely insinuate that Professor El-Deiry is the creator or a member of ScienceGuardians, as shown in the eighth snapshot, which was extracted from the derogatory blog operated by Perpetrator 4.
🔔 But we must pose a simple question:
Would the founder of a sophisticated, well-designed, and fully supported platform like ScienceGuardians — one that offers a secure and constructive alternative to PubPeer, and whose post-publication peer review features effectively challenge and improve on platforms like PubPeer — be the first to register and promote the platform publicly in their own name?
The answer is obvious: No.
it would be highly illogical and counterproductive for anyone to reveal their identity in such a direct manner, particularly before the platform has had a chance to establish itself.
And yet, here we are — confronted with a clear and easily verifiable example of how falsehoods and slander are being deliberately spread through this derogatory blog. The claim that Professor El-Deiry founded ScienceGuardians is not only baseless but so transparently false that even the most minimal scrutiny reveals it for what it is: a desperate attempt to discredit a scientist by weaponizing manufactured narratives. 🛑 This pattern extends far beyond this single instance — much of the content published on this derogatory blog follows the same blueprint of distortion, misrepresentation, and coordinated personal attacks.
💡 Let us recall the words of one of ScienceGuardians’ legal advisors:
“Perpetrators and criminals are rarely intelligent — they simply exploit fear and leverage intimidation as their primary tools of control.”
This recent pattern of false accusations and clumsy narratives suggests only one thing: the perpetrators are growing agitated and frustrated. They are losing control of a space they once dominated — a space they used to harass and exploit vulnerable researchers through financially motivated, coordinated attacks. Now, 🔱 ScienceGuardians has disrupted this domain. The balance has shifted. The exploitation is being exposed. And the perpetrators, in their desperation, are beginning to unveil their own malicious tactics — ultimately exposing themselves.
📢 We call on @BrownUniversity, @BrownMedicine, @BrownUnivHealth, @NIH, and @HHSGov to immediately investigate these malicious, targeted, and orchestrated attacks on Professor Wafik El-Deiry — and to take a principled stand against the intimidation and threats propagated by mobs undermining academic integrity.
⚖️ We further urge full-scale investigations by federal and legal authorities, including:
@FBI @FBIDirectorKash @FBIDDBongino @DHSgov @Sec_Noem @DOGE @elonmusk @secgov @TheJusticeDept @AGPamBondi @FinCENnews
🎯 These actions must be taken to protect the foundations of the scientific enterprise — and to ensure that fraudulent networks do not compromise the nation’s commitment to merit-based, transparent, and integrity-driven recruitment and leadership across public institutions.
📢 To global media and talk shows: Expose orchestrated network mobs harassing scientists for power and gain. The academic community demands accountability!
@FoxNews @NEWSMAX @BreitbartNews @DailyCaller @dcexaminer @FDRLST @realDailyWire @OANN @townhallcom @NRO @AFP @france_soir @dwnews @derspiegel @el_pais @EFEnoticias @LaVanguardia @Agenzia_Ansa @Corriere
🗂️📌 We have previously revealed how Perpetrators 1 and 2 target researchers and scientists through various false identities. Perpetrator 1, a financial advisor, with no scientific or academic credential, has explicitly confessed to operating under multiple aliases, one of which is Actinopolyspora biskrensis, responsible for 9,515 comments as of 1 April 2025 (a number that has since grown to 9,569 as of 17 April 2025). It is important to note that, by their own admission, this is only one of their many identities.
🗂️📌 We subsequently secured another significant written confession from Perpetrator 1, in which they confirmed knowing Hoya camphorifolia — a fraudulent anonymous account on PubPeer responsible for approximately 25,000 comments as of 1 April 2025. More crucially, they admitted in writing that the person behind Hoya camphorifolia also uses multiple false identities. We designate this individual as Perpetrator 3, and the two have acknowledged working together.
🧩 The first snapshot illustrates the close association between these individuals, with Perpetrator 1 referring to Perpetrator 3 by one of their false identities, Hoya camphorifolia. As stated in previous disclosures, we had already gathered compelling evidence of a high level of coordination between these two fraudulent actors, whose real identities are known to us. However, from a legal and investigative standpoint, obtaining an explicit confession and admission of guilt was critical.
🚨 This brings us to the pseudonym Clare Francis, known for having posted thousands of comments on PubPeer. The aggression and threats associated with this alias were best summarized by @TomReller of @ElsevierConnect:
“Generally speaking, Clare was rather disruptive at first, but by now most editors and publishing teams have an approach in place when it comes to managing Clare’s demands and threats.”
🧩 As shown in the second snapshot, Perpetrator 1 has disclosed an important operational detail about Clare Francis:
“Posts under a unique PubPeer name for each paper.”
This means that Clare Francis, already a false identity, operates through a large number of additional fraudulent aliases on PubPeer. Below is a small sample of these accounts, along with their number of PubPeer entries as of 17 April 2025:
Digitalis ciliata — 20 entries
Cyclope pellucida — 1 entry
Calotis scapigera — 2 entries
Convolvulus dryadum — 6 entries
Acrotrema costatum — 1 entry
Daucus minusculus — 11 entries
Zeltnera quitensis — 4 entries
Bathysiphon flexilis — 2 entries
Greya variata — 6 entries
Zelandoperla decorata — 6 entries
Bolitoglossa morio — 5 entries
Apiomerus vexillarius — 9 entries
…and many more.
We could continue listing them, but it would quickly become monotonous due to the sheer number of fraudulent identities being operated by this individual, operating under a completely fabricated identity.
⚠️ This pattern of alias-driven harassment builds on a history of anonymity in scientific critique. In a 2011 Lab Times editorial (mathbabe.org/wp-content/upl…), @RetractionWatch co-founder @ivanoransky and @armarcus defended Clare Francis’s anonymous whistle-blowing. This defense may have emboldened Francis’s alleged escalation into a central figure in the PubPeer Network Mob, using aliases to harass researchers. Oransky, now a PubPeer board member, praised the platform in a 2022 tweet as vital to science correction (“difficult to imagine… science itself… without PubPeer”), raising questions about oversight as alleged abuses proliferate on PubPeer. Notably, the only comment on that tweet came from a PubPeer Network Mob member, whose identity and malicious activities are known to us and will be addressed as we reveal further pieces of this puzzle. They wrote, “In an ideal world PubPeer would be supported by the NIH, which would also take it very seriously… Alas, we don’t live in an ideal world...”, highlighting the Mob’s advocacy for unchecked influence (see the third snapshot).
🚨 Perpetrator 1 has referred to Clare Francis on their X account more than 40 times, revealing additional details about their close association, as evidenced in the fourth snapshot. This relationship takes on greater significance given their shared fixation on a prominent cancer researcher, Professor Wafik S. El-Deiry (@weldeiry), a physician-scientist, Director of @BrownUCancer, and Associate Dean at @BrownMedicine, @BrownUniversity.
🎓 Professor El-Deiry is widely recognized as one of the top cancer researchers in the United States, and he is currently nominated by the @POTUS @RobertKennedyJr @DrJBhattacharya team for the prestigious position of Director of the National Cancer Institute (@theNCI).
⚠️ Perpetrator 1 has attacked Professor El-Deiry on their X account numerous times, including 26 attacks just over the five-day period from 12–17 April 2025. Meanwhile, Clare Francis has shown an unrelenting obsession, sending over 100 emails to nearly every institution with which Professor El-Deiry is affiliated. And yes — as many have come to expect — threats are a standard part of Clare Francis’ conduct.
Among the many false accounts operated under the Clare Francis pseudonym is the anonymous identity Apiomerus vexillarius, which was created 8 months ago and has 9 entries on PubPeer, all targeting publications authored by Professor El-Deiry, as shown in the second snapshot.
The magnitude of threats, disrespect, harassment, and extortion endured by Professor El-Deiry at the hands of Perpetrator 1 and Clare Francis is simply unimaginable. On 15 April, Professor El-Deiry publicly shared via X a cluster of orchestrated attacks carried out by members of the PubPeer Network Mob. All of these attacks occurred within a 22-minute window, each calling for the retraction of his articles (See fifth snapshot; 📸 snapshots 5–8 are included in the continuation of this thread ⬇️)
🔔 This campaign of coordinated harassment began in May 2024, after the publication of a scientific article by Professor El-Deiry and his team in Oncotarget entitled:
“Transfected SARS-CoV-2 spike DNA for mammalian cell expression inhibits p53 activation of p21(WAF1), TRAIL Death Receptor DR5 and MDM2 proteins in cancer cells and increases cancer cell viability after chemotherapy exposure”
📌 As with previous cases we have documented, we at ScienceGuardians™ do not comment on the scientific content or conclusions of any paper. Our focus remains solely on exposing and addressing the orchestrated attacks, deceptive behaviors, and fraudulent tactics employed by members of the PubPeer Network Mob in their efforts to discredit researchers.
Since that publication, the harassment has intensified dramatically, with close to 60 of Professor El-Deiry’s papers targeted on PubPeer over the past 8 months.
🚨 Remember Perpetrator 4, referenced in the second snapshot, who was praised by Perpetrator 1 as “highly influential”? This individual operates one of the major sections of the PubPeer Network Mob, running a derogatory blog that is:
• Riddled with slander
• Filled with unsubstantiated accusations
• Saturated with mockery
• Framed with inflammatory language
This blog reflects a signature tactic employed by the PubPeer Network Mob: presenting partial truths to establish credibility, while subtly injecting misinformation, false accusations, and slander for strategic manipulation.
As shown in the sixth snapshot, Perpetrator 4’s blog post dated 17 May 2024 launched an attack on Professor El-Deiry’s Oncotarget paper as part of a lengthy post — marking the beginning of a series of eight coordinated blog attacks against him, all of which used inflammatory and mocking rhetoric.
Disrespect and ad hominem attacks are routine behavior among members of the PubPeer Network Mob. For example, in the seventh snapshot, Perpetrator 2 refers to Professor El-Deiry as “#BrownClown” (left image), and in another exchange with Perpetrator 1, both resort to vitriolic and defamatory language. In yet another attack, Perpetrator 2 falsely and publicly referred to both Professor Wafik El-Deiry (@weldeiry) and NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) as “rather dubious researchers” (bottom right image), further illustrating the persistent pattern of baseless personal smears aimed at discrediting respected figures in medicine and science.
We are deeply sorry that we must share these disturbing realities with the academic community, but the scale of defamation and targeted harassment cannot be overstated.
🔱 We, at ScienceGuardians™, have, on multiple occasions, invited members of the academic and research communities to join this initiative and become Science Guardians themselves. Following the launch of the ScienceGuardians™ platform in November 2024, we prioritized outreach to those most affected by campaigns of harassment and defamation led by members of the PubPeer Network Mob. Professor El-Deiry was placed among those at the top of this list and was one of the first scientists to register on the platform at scienceguardians.com, also sharing it publicly on X.
⚠️ Since then, members of the PubPeer Mob have tried to falsely insinuate that Professor El-Deiry is the creator or a member of ScienceGuardians, as shown in the eighth snapshot, which was extracted from the derogatory blog operated by Perpetrator 4.
🔔 But we must pose a simple question:
Would the founder of a sophisticated, well-designed, and fully supported platform like ScienceGuardians — one that offers a secure and constructive alternative to PubPeer, and whose post-publication peer review features effectively challenge and improve on platforms like PubPeer — be the first to register and promote the platform publicly in their own name?
The answer is obvious: No.
it would be highly illogical and counterproductive for anyone to reveal their identity in such a direct manner, particularly before the platform has had a chance to establish itself.
And yet, here we are — confronted with a clear and easily verifiable example of how falsehoods and slander are being deliberately spread through this derogatory blog. The claim that Professor El-Deiry founded ScienceGuardians is not only baseless but so transparently false that even the most minimal scrutiny reveals it for what it is: a desperate attempt to discredit a scientist by weaponizing manufactured narratives. 🛑 This pattern extends far beyond this single instance — much of the content published on this derogatory blog follows the same blueprint of distortion, misrepresentation, and coordinated personal attacks.
💡 Let us recall the words of one of ScienceGuardians’ legal advisors:
“Perpetrators and criminals are rarely intelligent — they simply exploit fear and leverage intimidation as their primary tools of control.”
This recent pattern of false accusations and clumsy narratives suggests only one thing: the perpetrators are growing agitated and frustrated. They are losing control of a space they once dominated — a space they used to harass and exploit vulnerable researchers through financially motivated, coordinated attacks. Now, 🔱 ScienceGuardians has disrupted this domain. The balance has shifted. The exploitation is being exposed. And the perpetrators, in their desperation, are beginning to unveil their own malicious tactics — ultimately exposing themselves.
📢 We call on @BrownUniversity, @BrownMedicine, @BrownUnivHealth, @NIH, and @HHSGov to immediately investigate these malicious, targeted, and orchestrated attacks on Professor Wafik El-Deiry — and to take a principled stand against the intimidation and threats propagated by mobs undermining academic integrity.
⚖️ We further urge full-scale investigations by federal and legal authorities, including:
@FBI @FBIDirectorKash @FBIDDBongino @DHSgov @Sec_Noem @DOGE @elonmusk @secgov @TheJusticeDept @AGPamBondi @FinCENnews
🎯 These actions must be taken to protect the foundations of the scientific enterprise — and to ensure that fraudulent networks do not compromise the nation’s commitment to merit-based, transparent, and integrity-driven recruitment and leadership across public institutions.
📢 To global media and talk shows: Expose orchestrated network mobs harassing scientists for power and gain. The academic community demands accountability!
@FoxNews @NEWSMAX @BreitbartNews @DailyCaller @dcexaminer @FDRLST @realDailyWire @OANN @townhallcom @NRO @AFP @france_soir @dwnews @derspiegel @el_pais @EFEnoticias @LaVanguardia @Agenzia_Ansa @Corriere
🔱 Continuation of snapshots 5–8 from our exposé on orchestrated harassment by the PubPeer Network Mob
These additional snapshots provide further documentation of the coordinated attacks targeting Professor Wafik S. El-Deiry.
⬆️ See the first post in this thread for full context.
📢 To global media and talk shows: Expose orchestrated network mobs harassing scientists for power and gain. The academic community demands accountability!
@destandaard @anadoluagency @Hurriyet @AJEnglish @arabnews @AlArabiya_Eng @aawsat_News @XHNews @ChinaDaily @NHKWORLD_News @asahi @htTweets @CNN @timesofindia @the_hindu @geonews_english @dawn_com @AP @CBCNews @globeandmail @folha @JornalOGlobo @clarincom @__elmercurio @News24 @mailandguardian @allafrica @abcnews @smh @australian @tassagency_en @kyodo_english @PTI_News @SABCNews @BRICSinfo @Gutfeldfox @seanhannity @IngrahamAngle @GMA @MarioNawfal @FallonTonight @TuckerCarlson @HighWireTalk @megynkelly
These additional snapshots provide further documentation of the coordinated attacks targeting Professor Wafik S. El-Deiry.
⬆️ See the first post in this thread for full context.
📢 To global media and talk shows: Expose orchestrated network mobs harassing scientists for power and gain. The academic community demands accountability!
@destandaard @anadoluagency @Hurriyet @AJEnglish @arabnews @AlArabiya_Eng @aawsat_News @XHNews @ChinaDaily @NHKWORLD_News @asahi @htTweets @CNN @timesofindia @the_hindu @geonews_english @dawn_com @AP @CBCNews @globeandmail @folha @JornalOGlobo @clarincom @__elmercurio @News24 @mailandguardian @allafrica @abcnews @smh @australian @tassagency_en @kyodo_english @PTI_News @SABCNews @BRICSinfo @Gutfeldfox @seanhannity @IngrahamAngle @GMA @MarioNawfal @FallonTonight @TuckerCarlson @HighWireTalk @megynkelly
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