Sayer Ji Controversy: The Misinformation Claims, Examined

Short answer

In March 2021 the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) named Sayer Ji one of a “Disinformation Dozen” it said produced most anti-vaccine content in a sample of social-media posts. Facebook disputed that claim in August 2021. Fact-checkers have rated specific GreenMedInfo articles false or misleading, and one study he cited was later retracted. This page sets out each piece, with sources, including the parts that cut against him.

What the report said

CCDH’s report, published March 24, 2021, attributed 65% of the anti-vaccine content in “over 812,000 posts extracted from Facebook and Twitter” between February 1 and March 16, 2021 to twelve people, and 73% of a Facebook sample of 483 pieces of content from 30 groups. It described Ji’s GreenMedInfo as promoting “pseudoscience and anti-vaccine misinformation” and cited a March 2021 post in which he “shares claims that the Pfizer vaccine has killed more people than COVID” (CCDH).

What Facebook said

“There isn’t any evidence to support this claim.” … “In fact, these 12 people are responsible for about just 0.05% of all views of vaccine-related content on Facebook.”

Monika Bickert, Vice President of Content Policy, Meta, August 18, 2021

Two cautions. Facebook’s 0.05% counts views of all vaccine-related content, while CCDH’s percentages count shares of a sample of anti-vaccine content, so the two numbers measure different things and should not be compared as a ratio. And the same post says Facebook removed at least one page, group or account linked to each of the twelve.

What fact-checkers flagged

PolitiFact, December 9, 2020. Rated a GreenMedInfo article on the FDA’s working list of possible COVID-19 vaccine adverse events “Mostly False,” saying it “contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts” (PolitiFact). Newswise reached a similar conclusion and quoted Ji’s stated aim: “to counterbalance the highly biased promotion of vaccines as ‘safe and effective’ a priori” (Newswise).
A retracted study. In September 2021 Ji cited a Toxicology Reports paper, “Why are we vaccinating children against COVID-19?”, to argue against childhood COVID-19 vaccination. The journal retracted the paper on May 6, 2022, citing “clear evidence that the findings are unreliable” (retraction notice). He relied on a paper that did not hold up, and that belongs in the record.
McGill OSS. In 2019 Jonathan Jarry called GreenMedInfo “a highly selective slice of the biomedical literature, biased toward positive results” (McGill OSS). GreenMedInfo describes itself as a curated index, not a systematic review; see Is GreenMedInfo legit? McGill’s 2021 article on the report contains a checkable error, documented on the correction record.

What has happened since

2018
Pinterest removed GreenMedInfo from its platform (Snopes).
2020–21
By March 2021 Twitter had removed GreenMedInfo’s account and Instagram some of its accounts (CCDH); Ji’s Instagram account was suspended in April 2021 (NPR). YouTube removed his channels in 2021 (his account).
Aug 2023
The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed CCDH for its communications with the executive branch, as part of an investigation into government pressure on platforms (House Judiciary). A congressional subpoena is not a finding of wrongdoing.
May 2025
Ji and five others named in the report sued in Finn v. Global Engagement Center, alleging coordinated suppression of their speech (docket).
Sep 2025
Alphabet told the House Judiciary Committee that senior Biden administration officials had pressed it to remove COVID-19 videos “that did not violate company policies,” and offered banned creators a way back (Spectrum News).
Oct 2025
YouTube reinstated the GreenMedInfo, Sayer Ji and GreenMedInfo Research channels. According to Ji, YouTube acknowledged in writing that he had not violated its community guidelines (his account).
Dec 2025
The State Department imposed visa restrictions on five people it said led efforts to coerce American platforms to censor Americans; CNN reported that CCDH’s chief executive was among them (CNN).
Jul 2026
The court dismissed Finn with prejudice as an impermissible “shotgun pleading.” It did not reach standing or the merits. No court has ruled on whether the allegations are true.

His position

Ji rejects the label “anti-vaxxer” and frames his work as informed consent: publishing the adverse-event literature that he argues mainstream coverage underweights. Critics see the same selection as one-sided. Readers can judge the work directly, because each GreenMedInfo entry links to its source, and errors on this site are corrected in public on the corrections page.

Sources

Facts on this page are dated and linked to their sources. Errors are corrected and logged on the corrections page. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.