Dan Smith

Open source writer focusing on disinformation, foreign influence and narrative warfare. Spring 2023 @DFRLab's Digital Sherlocks.

[Reform UK Exposed 🇬🇧 @reformexposed]

Reform UK’s newly elected councillor Robin Baxter-Ayling has just been elected to the Harbour division of SUFFOLK. It’s an incredibly deprived area.

Which is surprising, given that Robin Baxter-Ayling was featured in @Independent last year complaining about mansion tax:

https://t.co/AfhfyO9ciJ

On the five-bedroomed house he owns in LINCOLNSHIRE, which he converted from a disused CHURCH, valued at around £1m.

What’s more, it’s an Airbnb: https://t.co/L0k4obIgMZ

Reform UK, converting churches in to Airbnbs.

Standing in deprived areas, complaining about mansion taxes.

[💋 @3fvnta]

welcome to the uk btw

[Hanner @GangstHannah]

Fuck GenAI and Fuck Data centers

[Ross McCafferty @RossMcCaff]

Doesn't matter how wrong you think Polanski was, the Met Police Commissioner is either politically neutral or he isnt. This is a highly personal attack on a prominent politician a week before elections. Slippery slope

[Annelisa J. Purdie 🐏 📜 🌾 @RosyShepherdess]

Y’ALL. This is not a drill. The Wayback Machine is often the only source of webpages that have been scrubbed from the Internet.

[Dan Smith @rosa_noctis]

@Eyeswideopen69 The poll they are referring to was conducted by an organisation that started in 2020, doesn’t name anyone who runs it, and doesn’t seem to exist beyond its twitter account and website. Soooo, how legitimate it is, idk.

[Hazel @HazelSoSlay]

this is just legalized torture against a minority group and the fact that there is next to no outrage about this is a terrifying sign of how the majority of society sees trans people

[Nora | CEO of Mega Evolution 👾 @norainthefuture]

idc how much you love harry potter. separate art from artist does not apply when the artist does this.

her imminent endgame is halting trans adult healthcare.

please spread the word & encourage loved ones to stop engaging w/ the franchise. wealth she gains hurts us directly. 🏳️‍⚧️

[Dan Smith @rosa_noctis]

@BBCNews What is this partisan drivel by the BBC? Meanwhile Starmer is fast tracking a renowned pedophile affiliate into US ambassador, and Farage aligns with a convicted criminal in the form of Tommy Robinson. Disgraceful.

[🌸 𝓢𝓾𝓰𝓪𝓻 🌸 @sugarGSP]

It was only a matter of time.

Fuck you NHS England

[Dr. Dan Lomas @Sandbagger_01]

China ‘spy’ case linked to think tank where suspect met ministers

https://t.co/TAZbM6WvFY

[vx-underground @vxunderground]

Yeah, so pretty much, like, there is this really sketchy company in Israel named "Paragon". Paragon sells a "product" called GRAPHITE.

Let me explain the background and why this is very silly.

GRAPHITE spyware which allows "customers" to remotely access peoples cell phones and monitor their instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp

It is spyware. It is sometimes called Mercenary Spyware because it is primarily used by governments to spy on political enemies, journalists, and activists.

Very little is known about Paragon, GRAPHITE, and their "customers". However, it was publicly noted by the Trump administration in January, 2025, to be purchased by the United States government and to be used to aid ICE.

Furthermore, in September 2025 the Trump administration noted the usage of Graphite to aid the United States against "domestic terrorist organizations" such as "ANTIFA".

ICE acting director Todd Lyons noted using GRAPHITE to monitor anti-ICE protestors to track "ringleaders and professional agitators".

Citizen Lab and other civil rights organizations have documented the usage of GRAPHITE against individuals in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, Singapore and (unsurprisingly) the United States. It is believed the Canadian government actively uses GRAPHITE in Ontario.

Okay, so why does all of this matter? Yeah, it's super fucked up. But today representatives from Paragon accidentally leaked GRAPHITE screenshots ... ON LINKEDIN. Dawg, that image in the background IS GOVERNMENT FUCKING SPYWARE

It shows phone numbers in Czechia, apps, accounts, media on the phone, "interception status", and phone numbers extracted. THEY LEAKED IT BY ACCIDENT ON LINKEDIN WHILE TAKING SELFIES

[Daniel Lismore @daniellismore]

Detransition Is Not the Story They Keep Telling You

For years, public debate around transgender people has been dominated by one claim: regret. We are told that large numbers of trans people “realise they were wrong,” that transition is a mistake, and that society is rushing people into irreversible decisions. That narrative has now collapsed under the weight of the largest dataset ever collected on transgender lives.

In June 2025, Advocates for Trans Equality published findings from the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey, the most comprehensive survey of trans people in history. More than 92,000 transgender Americans aged 16 and over took part. This is not anecdote. It is population-level evidence.

The results are stark.

Only 9 percent of respondents reported that they had ever returned, at any point, to living as the sex they were assigned at birth. That figure is routinely cited as proof that transition “doesn’t work.” What is almost never mentioned is why those people did so.

The most common reason was not doubt about gender identity. It was that being trans had become socially unbearable. Forty-one percent said it was “just too hard to be trans in my community.” Thirty-seven percent cited pressure from parents. Twenty-four percent cited pressure from other family members. Thirty-three percent reported harassment or discrimination.

Social hostility, family rejection, and structural transphobia overwhelmingly explain why people stopped or reversed transition.

Only 4 percent of those who temporarily returned to living as their assigned sex said they did so because they realised transition was not right for them. When you consider everyone in the survey who had ever transitioned, that equates to 0.36 percent.

That is not a trend. It is not a crisis. It is statistical rarity.

The data also addresses another persistent myth: that transition harms health or wellbeing. The opposite is true.

Respondents who had socially transitioned were more likely to report good or better health than those who had not. Those who had medically transitioned reported even stronger outcomes. Nearly all respondents receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy reported increased life satisfaction. The same was true for those who had undergone gender-affirming surgery.

Transition did not erase all life’s difficulties. No medical intervention does. But it consistently reduced dysphoria, distress, and day-to-day suffering.

One of the strongest predictors of positive outcomes was not medical status at all. It was support.

Respondents with supportive families reported significantly better health and markedly lower rates of suicidality. Those without support were far more likely to have considered or attempted suicide. The difference was not identity. It was environment.

This aligns with decades of research across pediatrics, psychiatry, and public health. Trans people do not experience poor mental health because they are trans. They experience poor mental health when they are rejected, isolated, and targeted.

The political context matters here. While trans people gained visibility and some protections between 2015 and 2022, the same period saw an explosion of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Hundreds of bills restricting healthcare, public participation, and basic civil life were introduced in just a few years. Since then, that legislative hostility has intensified.

At the same time, data on trans people has been stripped from federal health surveys, and research funding has been withdrawn. This erasure makes large independent surveys like the U.S. Trans Survey not just informative, but essential. When official data disappears, misinformation thrives.

What emerges from this evidence is not confusion, contagion, or regret. It is a clear pattern.

[Sarah @Sarah_pdx]

objectively funny situation to be the subject of a deranged conspiracy theory the thesis of which is that, despite all evidence to the contrary, you are insanely goated at sports

[Dan Smith @rosa_noctis]

@descartesbeard @cfu986644 @Telegraph And thats the opinion you have to re-evaluate.
I recognise it goes against your GCSE-level understanding of gender and sex, but being a more open person who can push past your pre-conceptions of the world, will really enrich your life.

I’m kinda done with this convo now tho. 🏳️‍⚧️

[Dan Smith @rosa_noctis]

@descartesbeard @cfu986644 @Telegraph Luckily, trans women aren’t men so. Maybe we agree on that 🙃

[Dan Smith @rosa_noctis]

@descartesbeard @cfu986644 @Telegraph I hate to break it to you, but that isnt how peer review works.

Regardless, I think you desperately need to reevaluate your stance on this issue - maybe even meet a few trans people yourself (without being rude to them that is). Trans rights are human rights 🏳️‍⚧️

[Dan Smith @rosa_noctis]

@descartesbeard @cfu986644 @Telegraph No, but I’m pretty sure the people who had a peer-reviewed article published in the British Medical Journal are scientists, likely with many years experience researching and working in that field. So I’m willing to trust them over some random man’s gut feeling.

[Dan Smith @rosa_noctis]

@descartesbeard @Telegraph Are you a sports scientist?