A banned promoter of cancer ‘cures’ was hijacked by genAI. Now the internet is ‘flooded with garbage’

Five years ago, Barbara O’Neill was permanently banned from providing any health services in New South Wales or other Australian states.

O’Neill, whose website describes her as “an international speaker on natural healing”, was found by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) in 2019 to have given highly risky health advice to vulnerable people, including the use of bicarbonate soda as a cancer treatment.

Since then her views have found a much larger audience overseas and online, supported by elements of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church and media networks in the US. So far this year O’Neill has spoken in the US, the UK and Ireland and advertised retreats in Thailand for thousands of dollars. A Facebook page managed in her name is promoting plans for O’Neill to tour Australia later this year, despite the commission’s ruling.

But O’Neill’s story reveals not only the limits of a state health regulator. Beyond her own promotional efforts, a vast scam economy has grown up that profits from her notoriety without her authorisation.

Clips of O’Neill’s health teachings, often dating as far back as 2012, now feed a voracious economy of unaffiliated Facebook pages and groups – more than 180 at one point – that are branded with her name and share lecture clips and recipes but are outside the control of O’Neill. Many are controlled by accounts based in Morocco, but attempts to contact administrators went unanswered.

Old clips of O’Neill are being used to sell herbal teas, Celtic salt and castor oil on TikTok, as Vox found. AI-generated content of O’Neill on the app now goes even further, making up entirely new claims about her and her health advice.

Accounts on the app share generative AI images that falsely claim she “disappeared” after revealing that a certain mineral that will help people live for 100 years, or that show O’Neill being “arrested” for sharing apparent methods of natural healing such as black seed oil. The videos typically link to online stores or even Amazon where, naturally, the product referred to is for sale. Questions to account owners went unanswered.

It’s part of an emerging online ecosystem in which would-be digital creators in search of easy money follow trending topics such as O’Neill’s health claims, and use generative AI to create eye-catching and often bizarre images on social media – often sending viewers to online stores.

Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media, has explored the “AI slop” economy on Facebook. He suggests creators around the world are essentially “penetration testing” social media platforms to circumvent moderation policies and make money in new ways, building off content they know will capture attention. So-called “wellness secrets” fit the bill.

“That’s been the biggest effect of the generative AI boom,” he says. “The entire internet and social media platforms have been flooded with garbage.”

‘Genuine’ O’Neill content finds an audience

For years, O’Neill and her husband, Michael O’Neill – the founder of the Informed Medical Options party (now the Heart party), which opposes water fluoridation and “No jab, no pay” immunisation requirements – worked at the Misty Mountain health retreat in northern New South Wales.

She crisscrossed Australia giving health lectures, often in regional cities and outer suburbs such as Dandenong, SDA publications from the 2010s show. “Do you want better health?”, one ad from 2012 asked, indicating O’Neill would discuss high blood pressure and “overcoming depression”.

After a series of complaints in 2018 and 2019, the HCCC investigated some of her claims. The commission found that among her many claims was that cancer was caused by fungus and that it could be treated by “sodium bicarbonate wraps”.

Her comments about infant nutrition, antibiotics for pregnant women and vaccinations were also not based on evidence, the HCCC found, and she had “limited qualifications in the area of nutrition and dietetics”.

“Mrs O’Neill does not recognise that she is misleading vulnerable people (including mothers and cancer sufferers) by providing very selective information,” it concluded, and banned her permanently from providing any health services. The ban is enforceable in New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland and Victoria.

Misty Mountain lost its charity status in 2021. Yet despite the restrictions she faces in Australia, O’Neill maintains a rigorous international touring schedule. In May, she hosted an eight-day retreat in Phuket, Thailand that was advertised as costing between US$2,979.80 (about A$4,500) and US$7,070.90.

A June event about childhood vaccinations run by an Australian anti-vaccine group advertised a “bonus zoom live with Barbara O’Neill” for about $180.

“I believe it is our role to get this message out to as many as possible,” O’Neill said in a recent online interview. “The ban has actually freed me. It freed me to go places I don’t think I ever would have gone.”

Seventh-day Adventist networks have helped O’Neill continue to share her message. She has spoken at retreats and conferences organised by SDA institutes and colleges, though not all are affiliated with official church leadership.

A flyer for a multi-day event in September 2023 organised by the Mountaintop SDA church in Maryland, seen by Guardian Australia, said O’Neill would lecture on topics including “Cancer: Causes and Treatments” and “Safeguarding Against Depression”.

She has featured prominently on media published by Amazing Discoveries, a channel that broadcasts messages on “health, creation-evolution, media, current events, Bible prophecy, history, and Christian living”.

“I do believe that Amazing Discoveries has certainly contributed to Barbara’s fame but we are definitely not solely responsible,” the executive director at Amazing Discoveries, Wendy Goubej, says. “The recent TikTok videos are I think what really catapulted her to prominence. It’s sad to see that there are people who are misquoting her and misusing her information for personal gain.”

The US General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the church in Australia said O’Neill was not an employee and that the church had no involvement in her speaking engagements.

“In matters concerning health, the Seventh-day Adventist Church advises people to seek information and guidance from qualified and accredited healthcare professionals,” they said.

Fake posts take up the message

But publicity genuinely affiliated with O’Neill is dwarfed by the avalanche of scam posts on almost every major social media platform. Even as videos are taken down, new accounts and claims emerge.

In July, a Facebook ad used faked Channel Nine news footage to claim that O’Neill, an “Australian health coach”, had revealed a medicine that would heal “joint diseases” in three weeks. The page’s operator, with a Democratic Republic of Congo phone number, said over WhatsApp they had no idea where the video came from and they believed their page had been hacked.

Other Facebook ads claim she has recommended everything from particular herbal salves to supplements that help men with impotence. An ad linked to a Dubai pharmacy claims she is “considered one of the best urologists in the world”.

One particularly unconvincing video merges faked video and audio of the former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson and O’Neill to promote eyedrops.

In late 2023, O’Neill’s team shared a video on her verified Instagram account addressing the deluge of fakes online. The post said that while she was grateful for fan pages that “faithfully share” her teachings, “it is important to clear up some misconceptions as people have been impersonating Barbara on social media and selling consultations and ‘cures’.”

In August, her Facebook page again posted about the scams. “So many people still being tricked,” it read. “We are tagged in stories of people excited about purchasing fake items or products sold off fake AI videos.”

Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, says the phenomenon around O’Neill “shows the limit of regulatory powers”.

“I think that a lot of people are looking for easy solutions in this space: ‘if only we could take all this content off social media … the problem would be solved’.

“Well, it’s not that easy, right?”

A Meta spokesperson said the company was reviewing the Facebook ads flagged by Guardian Australia. “Meta adopts a multi-faceted approach to tackle scams,” he said. “We use both technology, such as new machine learning techniques, and specially trained reviewers to identify and action content and accounts that violate our policies.”

A TikTok spokesperson said the platform did not allow impersonation accounts “or attempts to defraud or scam members”, and removed an account sharing generative AI images of O’Neill identified by the Guardian. “In Australia, between January and March 2024, we removed over 73,000 videos for violating our Frauds and Scams Policy, with 98% of these taken down proactively before anyone reported them,” they said.

An HCCC spokesperson said it could not comment on specific cases or speculate on potential complaints. “The global spread of health misinformation through social media is an ongoing concern for the commission,” he said.

O’Neill did not respond to requests for comment.