Mike Adams
Health Ranger: Banned From Every Major Platform
Mike Adams, who brands himself the "Health Ranger," operates Natural News, one of the most prolific health misinformation websites on the internet. Over nearly two decades, the site has published thousands of articles promoting fake cures, anti-vaccine propaganda, and conspiracy theories that span from health into politics, technology, and government. Adams has been permanently banned from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and numerous other platforms, yet his operation continues through a self-built network of alternative websites and his own video platform, Brighteon.
What makes Natural News particularly dangerous is its scale and infrastructure. Adams does not simply post misinformation -- he has built an entire ecosystem designed to produce, amplify, and distribute it. The Natural News website serves as the flagship, but it is surrounded by satellite sites, email lists, and alternative social media platforms that allow Adams to maintain reach even as mainstream platforms deplatform him. His content is engineered for virality, combining alarming health claims with conspiracy theories that create a self-reinforcing worldview for his audience.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Natural News became a clearinghouse for dangerous misinformation about treatments and vaccines. Adams promoted colloidal silver, chlorine dioxide, and various supplements as alternatives to proven medical interventions. His anti-vaccine content reached millions through his distribution network, contributing to vaccine hesitancy at a critical moment in public health history. The site had been laying the groundwork for this kind of damage for years, having served as a major hub for anti-vaccine propaganda long before the pandemic.
Adams' response to deplatforming reveals the depth of his commitment to the misinformation enterprise. Rather than moderating his content, he built Brighteon, his own video hosting platform, as a refuge for content too extreme for YouTube. He expanded his network of alternative websites to route around content moderation. The result is a misinformation operation that is more resilient and harder to counter than almost any other in the health space, reaching an audience of millions who have been systematically isolated from credible sources of health information.