A June 29 investigation by the British newspaper The Guardian revealed that Daniel Linden, a tech entrepreneur based in Florida, is the driving force behind the "Shirion Collective," a pro-Israel disinformation network targeting public opinion on the Gaza war, particularly in the U.S., Australia, and the U.K.
The Guardian reports that the businessman co-authored a guide for users of the "OnlyFans" platform.
The Shirion Collective has harassed pro-Palestinian activists, including many Jews, offered bounties for identifying pro-Palestinian protesters, and spread misinformation about figures such as businessman George Soros.
The Guardian investigation used public records and open-source materials to corroborate information originally provided by the White Rose Society, an Australian anti-fascist research collective.
Linden has funded Shirion, appears to play a central role in managing the network’s social media accounts, and coordinates the group’s efforts through a Telegram channel. Public records and online sources indicate he resides in Gainesville, Florida.
The Guardian reached out to Linden via email and other communication channels with questions about his business ventures, but he did not respond to any of them.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder and chief strategy officer at the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, commented on Linden’s leadership of the Shirion campaign, stating that his apparent "grifting" is common among extremists, "but his ideology seems very confused." She added that "he is spreading hateful messages."
These revelations shed light on the nature of Shirion, which has faced criticism in the U.S. Congress and garnered global media attention regarding its role in countering criticisms of Israel’s actions in its Gaza war.
The Guardian Exposes Online Surveillance Network Targeting Supporters of Palestine
The Shirion Collective, active online since late 2023 on platforms like X, Telegram, and GoFundMe, promotes pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian propaganda while targeting pro-Palestinian protesters in the West.
In its X bios, Shirion alternately describes itself as a “surveillance collective” and a “surveillance network” claiming to search for “digital fingerprints” to “aggressively track what the mainstream media won’t” and “aggressively track and expose antisemitism.”
Shirion operates a private Telegram channel with 885 members. The channel is segmented into rooms dedicated to discussing events in specific territories (like Canada and Latin America) as well as coordinating online activities, including the mass reporting of X accounts.
Shirion organized two GoFundMe fundraisers in April and May of 2024. The earlier fundraiser brought in more than $57,000, including an anonymous $10,000 donation, for an operation in which trucks with big-screen monitors showed footage of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel near universities in various U.S. cities.
Offering Rewards to Those Who Identify Supporters of Palestine
In late 2023, Shirion began offering “bounties” on X for identifying individuals participating in pro-Palestinian protests, whom they describe as antisemitic.
On November 29, a post on X announced a scheme titled “INSIDERS AGAINST ANTISEMITISM,” offering cash rewards for “GREAT insider information.”
The accompanying graphic had a significant impact, showcasing a range of bounties that varied based on the individual's occupational status. Rewards started at $500 for identifying a student and went up to $10,000 for identifying a politician.
By December 3, Shirion had offered a $500 reward, later increased to $1,500, for identifying protesters whom Shirion claimed were chanting slogans advocating “genocide.”
In the following months, Shirion posted dozens of bounty offers and claimed to have also paid individuals who helped them identify whom they perceive as their adversaries.
As recently as June 19, in a recent post, Shirion claimed to have paid $1,000 for identifying a protester who was the target of a bounty announced on June 4.
Shirion Deploys Misinformation To Manipulate Its Followers
In addition to its bounty program, Shirion promotes Islamophobia and fosters hatred against Palestinians, celebrating death and destruction in Gaza and endorsing violence against their supporters in the West.
On April 27, Shirion responded to a video featuring images of destruction in Gaza with a post stating, “Love that Gaza looks like that now,” and added the acronym “FAFO,” which stands for “fuck around and find out.”
Shirion has frequently celebrated police violence directed at pro-Palestinian protesters in the United States.
On May 5, Shirion shared a post depicting a vehicular attack on protesters in Denver with the caption “LIKE & SHARE to make this more common.”
The Guardian reports that on February 19th, in a post on X, Shirion propagated a conspiracy theory alleging that “the Left” was “bringing illegals into the U.S.” to bolster pro-Palestinian protests.
Despite Shirion’s claims to oppose antisemitism, it regularly promotes conspiracy theories that experts consider implicitly antisemitic. These theories include narratives about the billionaire Jewish philanthropist George Soros, according to the newspaper.
On May 10, Shirion posted a warning about the “Soros-Backed Tides Foundation.”
Beirich, the extremism expert, said that Soros conspiracy theories are “always implicitly linked” with antisemitism. She also remarked, “It’s strange that [Linden] is at once rabidly pro-Israel and also spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories.”
Shirion has also shared conspiracy theories about Muslims, including one projecting a Muslim takeover of Europe. Often, Shirion posts outright disinformation, such as captioning images and videos of pro-Palestinian protesters taking a lesson in Haitian martial arts with the claim that they were “Practicing Slaughter Techniques on Jews.”
Harnessing Artificial Intelligence To Stoke Hatred
Shirion often makes grandiose claims about its connections and an AI technology it claims to be using to identify perceived enemies, according to The Guardian.
For instance, at various times on X, Shirion has claimed to have contacts in the New York police department and FBI, Israeli intelligence and the London metropolitan police, and to be connected with Republican congressional candidates and pro-Israel academic and commentator Max Abrahms.
Since late last year, it has claimed to have developed an AI technology, Project Maccabee, whose goal it has described as “Hitting and creating AGI for the PROTECTION and survival of our people,” and “EXPOSING these putrid antisemites.”
Masked Identities: The Pseudonymous Accounts of Businessman Daniel Linden
One thread connecting Linden to Shirion comes from Reddit. The subreddit ShirionCollective is moderated by user “Daninmde,” whose screen name is “Dantheprompt.” The subreddit apparently has no other members.
Dantheprompt's user profile indicates that the account also moderates 8 other subreddits and appears to be an enthusiast of generative AI. Most of the subreddits either have one member or are dominated by posts from “Daninmde.”
Besides the Shirion subreddit, all of the subreddits Dantheprompt moderates are concerned with topics related to the use of generative AI tools, including large language models (LLMs) and image-generating tools. The subreddit titles include “chiefaiofficer,” “SuperPrompters,” and “OnlyFansModelAI.” The last subreddit has 3 members and features sporadic posts of AI-generated imagery of scantily clad women.
The profile picture on Daninmde's Reddit account is an exact match for one used on an account of the same name on Multiplex, a discussion forum dedicated to AI entrepreneurship.
In a May 28, 2023, post on Multiplex in a thread called “introduce yourself,” Dantheprompt posted: “Hi guys, Dan Linden here… Been an entrepreneur for the last 12 years doing digital marketing, digital info products, etc.”
Further on, the post reads “@dantheprompt – if you ever want to message me on Twitter.”
The “dantheprompt” X account is now locked, but it identifies Dan Linden as the account holder, and the biography reads “Co-founder of Chief AI Officer (CAIO) – Building AI Powered (SaaS) – Digital Arts – Mixed Martial Arts.”
Another apparently dormant X account also uses the username daninmde, and its profile photo appears to depict the same person as in Linden’s other social media accounts. That account’s screen name is Dani L, which is one of the ties between Linden and Shirion’s fundraising efforts.
The Guardian found that the organizer of each GoFundMe is identified as Dani M. In an early archive of the first fundraiser, however, the organizer is identified as Dani L. As that fundraiser was being set up, though, the name of the organizer was revealed as Daniel Linden.
As the names on that fundraiser shifted, the organizer’s location was given as Gainesville, Florida. On the more recent fundraiser, the location is given as Durango, Colorado. Daniel Linden has lived in both cities.
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