An investigation has uncovered that Daniel Linden, a tech entrepreneur from Florida, is a key figure behind the Shirion Collective, a pro-Israel disinformation network targeting pro-Palestinian activists in the US, UK, and Australia. Shirion harasses activists, offers bounties for identifying protesters, spreads conspiracy theories, and claims to use AI for surveillance. Linden, who also co-authored an OnlyFans guidebook, has been linked to various dubious ventures and operates Shirion’s social media and crowdfunding efforts. Despite Shirion’s claims of advanced technology and influential connections, its true capabilities and intentions remain shrouded in mystery.
Daniel Linden, a Florida-based internet entrepreneur who co-wrote a guidebook for OnlyFans users, is a key figure in the Shirion Collective, a conspiracy-minded, pro-Israel disinformation network attempting to change public opinion regarding the Gaza conflict in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Shirion has harassed pro-Palestinian activists, including many Jews, offered bounties for the identities of pro-Palestinian protesters, spread conspiracy narratives centered on figures such as George Soros, and boasted of an AI surveillance platform while providing few concrete details about how the technology works.
The inquiry relied on public records and open-source sources to verify evidence provided by the White Rose Society, an Australian anti-fascist research group.
Linden established Shirion’s crowdfunding efforts, appears to play a key role in managing the network’s social media profiles, and organizes the group’s operations via a Telegram channel. According to public documents and internet materials, he currently resides in Gainesville, Florida, but has previously lived in Durango, Colorado, and Medellin, Colombia.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder and chief strategy officer at the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, described Linden’s Shirion campaign as “grifting,” which is common among radicals, “but his ideology appears very confused.”
“Regardless,” she added, “he is spreading hateful messages.”
The disclosures provide insight into Shirion’s nature, which has been attacked in Congress and garnered international media attention, as well as its role in responding to accusations of Israel’s actions in the Gaza invasion.
‘Surveillance network’
The Shirion Collective is an online operation that has been active since late 2023 on platforms like X, Telegram, and GoFundMe to coordinate the propagation of pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian propaganda, as well as the intimidation of pro-Palestinian protesters in the West.
Shirion identifies itself as a “surveillance collective” and a “surveillance network” that searches for “digital fingerprints” to “aggressively track what the MSM [mainstream media] won’t” and “aggressively track and expose antisemitism” in both of their X biographies.
Shirion runs a private Telegram channel that currently has 885 members. The channel is further separated into rooms for discussing events in certain territories (e.g., Canada and Latin America) or for coordinating online activity, such as mass reporting of accounts.
Shirion conducted two GoFundMe fundraising campaigns in April and May of 2024. The last fundraising raised more than $57,000, including an anonymous $10,000 payment, for an operation in which vehicles equipped with big-screen monitors displayed images of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel near campuses in several US locations.
The move drew criticism, especially from Representative Ilhan Omar, who spoke out in Congress against Shirion’s presentation of the tape at the University of California, Los Angeles protest camp.
Cash for ‘doxers’
Shirion began advertising “bounties” on X in late 2023 for the identification of those engaging in pro-Palestinian protests which they deemed antisemitic.
A post on X on November 29 advertised an “INSIDERS AGAINST ANTISEMITISM” scheme that guaranteed “CASH for GREAT insider information”.
An accompanying graphic advertised a variety of bounties that increased with occupational position, ranging from $500 for identifying a student to $10,000 for a politician. Shirion requested that supporters “BOOKMARK and SHARE to get the word out”.
Shirion offered a $500 prize, later increased to $1,500, for the identification of demonstrators accused of “genocidal chanting” on December 3.
In the months since Shirion has made scores of bounty offers and claimed to have paid out to anyone who has helped them identify their perceived opponents.
As recently as 19 June, it claimed in a post to have paid $1,000 for the identification of a demonstrator who was the target of a bounty on June 4th.
Hate and disinformation
Beyond the prize scheme, Shirion promotes Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hatred, while celebrating death and destruction in Gaza and violence against supporters in the West.
Shirion has frequently cheered the killings of Palestinians in Gaza, including journalists and children.
Shirion responded to a video featuring scenes of destruction in Gaza on April 27 by posting “Love that Gaza looks like That now,” followed by “FAFO,” an acronym for “fuck around and find out.”
Shirion has repeatedly praised police violence against pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the United States. It has also glorified violence against journalists, which it describes as “Marxist”.
Shirion wrote “LIKE & SHARE to make this more common” in a May 5 picture depicting a vehicular attack on demonstrators in Denver.
Shirion is also fond of conspiracy theories. In a 19 December response to another X user, it presented a conspiracy theory in which “the left” was “bringing illegals into the US” to support pro-Palestinian marches.
Despite Shirion’s claims to be anti-antisemitic, it frequently promotes conspiracy theories that experts see as essentially antisemitic.
They include conspiracies involving billionaire Jewish philanthropist George Soros.
On May 10, Shirion issued a warning concerning the “Soros-Backed Tides Foundation”.
Beirich, an extremism researcher, stated that Soros conspiracy theories are “always implicitly linked” to antisemitism. She additionally stated that “it’s strange that [Linden] is at once rabidly pro-Israel and also spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories”.
Shirion has frequently expressed conspiracy theories regarding Muslims, including one that envisions a Muslim takeover of Europe. Shirion frequently posts falsehoods. The account captioned photographs and videos of pro-Palestinian protestors learning Haitian martial arts with the accusation that they were “Practicing Slaughter Techniques on Jews”.
Project Maccabee
Shirion frequently makes exaggerated claims about its relationships and the AI technologies it promises to use to identify imagined opponents.
Shirion has claimed on X that he had contacts in the New York Police Department and FBI, Israeli intelligence, and the London Metropolitan Police, as well as connections to Republican congressional candidates and pro-Israel academic and broadcaster Max Abrahms.
Since late last year, it has claimed to have built AI technology, Project Maccabee, with the purpose of “hitting and creating AGI for the PROTECTION and survival of our people” and “EXPOSING these putrid antisemites”.
Shirion has claimed that the platform offers advanced capabilities. Shirion, on the other hand, has never given a public demonstration of its operations or provided a third-party endorsement for its use in surveillance chores. It has also failed to demonstrate that its monitoring and identification capabilities outperform those of amateur open-source intelligence investigators.
‘Dantheprompt’ and Shirion
One thread tying Linden to Shirion originated on Reddit. The subreddit ShirionCollective is maintained by member “Danimde”, also known as “Dantheprompt”. The subreddit appears to have no other members.
Dantheprompt’s user biography shows that the account also moderates 8 other subreddits and appears to be a fan of generative AI. Most subreddits have only one member or are dominated by posts from “Daninmde”.
Aside from the Shirion subreddit, Dantheprompt moderates all of the subreddits that deal with the use of generative AI tools, such as large language models (LLMs) and image-generating tools. The titles of the subreddits include “chiefaiofficer”, “SuperPrompters”, and “OnlyFansModelAI”. The last subreddit has three users and offers infrequent posts of AI-generated photos of scantily dressed ladies, all from the Daninmde account.
The profile photo of the Daninmde Reddit account is identical to one used on an account with the same name on Multiplex, a discussion forum for AI businesses. Dantheprompt introduced himself in a Multiplex thread titled “Introduce yourself” on May 28, 23. I’ve been an entrepreneur for the past 12 years, specializing in digital marketing and information products.
The post continues, “@dantheprompt – if you ever want to message me on Twitter”.
The “dantheprompt” X account has been locked, but it still names Dan Linden as the account holder, with the biography reading “Co-founder of Chief AI Officer (CAIO) – Building AI-Powered (SaaS) – Digital Arts – Mixed Martial Arts”.
The profile photo, while different from the Reddit and Multiplex photos, looks to be of the same person. That photograph connects Linden to Shirion’s now-deleted X post.
Shirion shared a screenshot of a Google search, which appears to have been conducted on an iPhone, on April 11. A profile image from the signed-in Google account appeared in the top right corner. The profile photo was identical to Linden’s Twitter avatar.
Another, presumably dormant X account with the moniker daninmde appears to have the same profile photo as Linden’s other social media accounts.
That account’s screen name is Dani L, which is one of the links between Linden and Shirion’s fundraising activities. Dani M. is currently the organizer of each GoFundMe campaign. In an early record of the first fundraiser, however, Dani L. is credited as the organizer. However, as the fundraiser was being put up, the organizer’s name was revealed: Daniel Linden.
As the identities on the fundraiser changed, the organizer’s location was listed as Gainesville, Florida. The more recent fundraiser mentions Durango, Colorado. Daniel Linden has resided in both locations.
Meet Daniel Linden
In his inaugural article on Multiplex, Linden stated that he “built some companies.” Wrote some books.”
According to public records and open-source materials, Linden has founded numerous businesses, however, it is unclear whether any of his earlier ventures lasted.
According to Colorado company documents, Linden formed two firms there: Linden Services in 2006 and Focus Interactions Ltd in 2013. Each presumably lasted less than a year.
Linden founded many firms in Gainesville, Florida, beginning in 2017, including Clickstein LLC, LD Networks LLC, and DG Media LLC. Again, all of these businesses appear to be defunct.
The companies left scant traces in the public record. According to a 2020 English-language media article from Medellin, Colombia, Clickstein was a digital marketing agency “based on the idea of ‘Einstein-inspired marketing formulas'” and that Linden lived in the city for a while.
The most recent captures of Clickstein’s website date from mid-2022. An archived “our team” website does not include the last names of employees or management, however, Dan L is named as the company’s president.
According to a business intelligence website, Linden is a “Co-Founder at clickstein.com, bringing experience from previous roles at notyouraverage.marketing, Marketing Bench, Focus Interactions, and Cre8tive Ninjas.”
Linden has shown a strong interest in OnlyFans, a platform that allows pornographic content creators to sell their work, in recent years, in addition to his occasional attempts to synthesize AI models.
A screenshot from one of his personal Facebook profiles dated December 6, 2022, reveals an OnlyFans payment notification indicating a net quarterly take of more than $155,000.
Linden is identified as co-author of a Spanish-language ebook whose title translates as Master OnlyFans in just 7 days! and whose description claims to educate users on how to construct “an account that will give you an average of 2,000 dollars a month”.
According to El País in 2022, Colombia has the second-largest adult webcam sector behind Romania. In 2019, Colombian weekly magazine Semana predicted that there could be 40,000 women working as webcam models in the country.
Linden is now listed as one of three professors for a “Chief AI Officer Certification Course” that costs $4,995. He is recognized as one of the “top 0.1% Prompt Engineers in the world”.
Beirich, an authority on extremism, stated that “any time there is a protest movement or a mass mobilization, extremist actors will try to use it to their advantage, whether that’s to hijack the message or to make the situation more volatile”.
Recently, GreatGameIndia reported that according to a recent report by OpenAI, an Israeli firm named STOIC attempted to influence Indian elections using ChatGPT but was thwarted by OpenAI.
