David Gilbert
Senior Reporter
david.gilbert@vice.comI write about the internet, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and how all of those things are increasingly influencing our everyday lives. (Sigh). Please send me tips.
Truth Social Was Hijacked To Get #DeSantis2024 Trending
A group of friends, including the guy who started the “Birds Aren’t Real” satire group, wanted to “really piss off Trump.”
A QAnon Follower Booby-Trapped Her Home With Flashbangs and Pepper Spray
The conspiracy theorist was arrested last week after a door-to-door salesman stepped on a tripwire at her property and suffered hearing loss.
TikTok Is Pushing Incel and Suicide Videos to 13-Year-Olds
It only takes ten minutes on the platform for TikTok’s powerful algorithm to start suggesting extremist content to kids, a new report found.
Inside the Private Group Where Parents Give Ivermectin to Kids With Autism
“I have been applying Ivermectin liquid to my granddaughter’s feet, belly button, and swabbing her ears for six weeks now. She complains of sporadic blurry vision and sometimes headaches.”
Dead Ivermectin Influencer Told Followers to Take Cyanide to Cure Cancer
In addition to ivermectin, Danny Lemoi advised his followers to eat dozens of apricot pits, which contain cyanide.
An Ivermectin Influencer Died. Now His Followers Are Worried About Their Own ‘Severe’ Symptoms.
Danny Lemoi took a daily dose of veterinary-grade ivermectin and told his thousands of followers to give the drug to children. He died of a common side effect of the medication.
Neo-Nazi Homeschoolers Could Be Paid $22,000 to Teach Their Kids About Hitler
Ohio’s “Backpack Bill” would funnel over a billion dollars of taxpayer money into homeschooling and private schools, including the neo-Nazi “Dissident Homeschool Network.”
High Schoolers Made a Racist Deepfake of a Principal Threatening Black Students
In one of the deepfake videos, the principal appeared to shout a string of racist slurs, including calling Black students “monkeys,” before threatening a mass shooting.
The Right Wants to Boycott Hershey’s Because a Trans Woman Was in Its Ad
The right is furious that Fae Johnstone, a 27-year-old transgender woman, appeared in a Hershey's chocolate ad campaign.
Meet the ‘American Frontline Nurses’ Telling Parents to Give Kids Ivermectin
Nicole Sirotek has been using social media to spread disinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines—and going after fellow nurses who try to push back.
The GOP Is Weaponizing LibsOfTikTok’s Anti-‘Woke’ Hate
Chaya Raichik amassed millions of followers by going after queer people and the doctors and teachers who support them. And now, she’s speaking at CPAC.
The Far Right Wants You to Think Ukraine’s War Is Staged: ‘It Is Clearly a Psyop’
Conspiracy theorists marked the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion by resurrecting the narrative that the entire conflict is fake.