Original subtitles

[ambient background sounds]

SPEAKER: Today we will be discussing Tanya Zuckerbrot.

For the 10 millionth time.

[punchy music]

I love when people are like,

"I never heard of this Tanya lady."

And I'm like, maybe it's better off.

Even when I try to get away from it,

people are like, [whispering] "Oh, my God.

[normal voice] I followed that whole thing."

[punchy music continues]

♪♪ ♪♪

SPEAKER: There were these two influencers, essentially,

fighting with each other on Instagram,

one alleging the other's diet is causing

horrible health problems for women following it,

and the other alleging that

that alleger was full of it.

- She took a 20-year career and destroyed it.

- These are people's personal stories they're sending to me.

- I can't believe we have to defend fiber now.

SPEAKER: Social media gives people the platform

to reach millions.

False statements can spread like wildfire.

- Emily is reckless

and would republish anything that was sent to her.

- The truth isn't scary. The truth will set you free.

- No one lost their period or their hair.

There's nothing in a Fiber/Protein Powder

that can cause that.

- I'm spreading lies?

No, bitch. I'm spreading the truth.

I'm sorry if it fucking hurts--

SPEAKER: I think, without Emily

and the character that she is,

I don't know that we would have been here.

I don't know that anybody would have taken it this far.

- You're a pig.

And you can quote me. [pig snorting]

- I try and not play in the mud with pigs.

- The drama, the theatrics of it all,

it's become very histrionic.

- I have a single white female.

I guess she's not single.

She's married with a child, which is even more disturbing.

Stalker.

- I did what I did, and I helped a lotta people,

and that is what it is, so...

SPEAKER: Both Emily and Tanya have huge followings.

But what began as trivial drama

between these two women

may have implications on

what you can and cannot say about others on social media.

TANYA: I'm suing her, because the truth does prevail.

What she did here was so tragic

and so destructive.

- Every penny will go to lawyers.

[whispering] It's so horrible.

Hey, I gotta go. [sniffling]

I have to get myself together.

Bye, guys.

[dramatic, edgy music]

♪♪ ♪♪

[ambient background sounds]

EMILY: Mike, can I please have

my pretty blue cup from Italy?

MIKE: No. EMILY: That looks like

a diamond? MIKE: This one?

EMILY: Yeah. It's so cute.

Anyway, my sales were great this weekend

'cause I ran a good promo.

I started selling merch like online and Live

like a few months after I got sued.

And when an army of trolls were coming after me so hard,

they went after every single brandle that I had,

and that was my source of income,

so I needed to find a way to, like, make money,

so I was like, I'm gonna sell merchandise direct to consumer.

Some of the merch is just like sayings that I like

and some of it is inspired by the hate that I got.

Like Tanya called me "menace to society,"

[moody music]

- I've said this so many times.

This woman is a menace to society.

- On her lawsuit against me,

she said that she can't get out of bed.

But she's, like, on vacation every other day.

Two trips to Italy this summer alone.

So I made an I only get out of bed for Italy shirt.

Michael's modeling Allergic To Bullshit.

- Just sue me, okay?

[both chuckling]

- My name is Emily Gellis Lande.

I'm a social media influencer and entrepreneur.

[quiet music]

I have a direct to consumer business,

so I spend my time fulfilling orders,

and I have a skin care brand.

Fashion has always been like in my DNA.

Four years after graduating NYU,

I started a handbag company.

We had a great run. We were sold in Saks

and great boutiques.

And then we sold the business in 2016.

I have a good eye for things,

like I know what people like, I know what's trending,

I know what sells, I know what women want.

And it's been

seven years of me focusing solely on my digital presence

as a creator online.

You guys want my secret

to non-frizzy hair this summer?

Well, Hairstory's New Wash is it.

Trust me. You are going to thank me.

♪♪ ♪♪

Oh, my God, another Live.

Look at this. To die.

To die. Look at that.

I love my followers.

I don't even know them in real life,

but we definitely have a relationship.

Bye, guys. Love you.

MIKE: Emily really cares about people.

I think there's times where

she is very vulnerable.

It's not as glamorous as everyone, you know,

paints her out to be.

EMILY: I've always talked about things

that I thought were important on my page.

[bright music]

When I got into this discussion

about Tanya Zuckerbrot

and F-Factor

and dieting and diet culture,

I honestly never thought

I would be talking about this story two years later.

[plucky music]

As an influencer, obviously, there's certain things

that are gonna touch people in different ways.

The reason this story touched me

is because I'm from New York.

Tanya Zuckerbrot's diet was very popular

within my social sphere, like years ago.

[mellow pop music]

SPEAKER: Are you guys ready?

Are you sure you're ready? Come on, now!

Please welcome the founder and CEO of F-Factor,

your host for the weekend, Tanya Zuckerbrot!

[cheers and applause]

- Thank you for allowing me

to share F-Factor with you guys.

SPEAKER: When I first heard about F-Factor diet

and Tanya, I was actually in college.

She was one of the very, very, very few dieticians

who was in the media.

ANCHOR: We're joined this evening

by nutritionist Tanya Zuckerbrot.

She has written The F-Factor Diet

on how a high-fiber diet

can do wonders for your overall health.

- I am a registered dietician,

so I reached out to Tanya.

And she messaged me back

and said, "We are actually hiring."

That was very exciting to me

that I can be in this environment

and learn a lot about the industry

from a private practice and media standpoint.

- We're in a fiber deficit.

We strip the fiber out of all our foods...

LISA: There was a lot of reverence

seeing her accomplishments and saying,

I would love to be able to do everything she's done.

She's someone that can be very engaging.

She can be easy to talk to.

She can be very flirtatious.

She can be very compelling and convincing.

And I think that's what made her

a great face/spokesperson for her brand.

- I figure if I'm enjoying something

perhaps you could enjoy that too.

And I'ma share, and I'm a girl's girl.

LISA: The F-Factor office-- it was busy, it was lively.

It was a lot of fun.

It very much felt like a sorority.

And we're making fiber sexy.

TANYA: That's the office.

[laughs]

Over there is the conference room.

Oh, and there's Abby. Beautiful Abigail.

LISA: This was the office.

This was the image. This was the brand.

- Fiber's gotten a makeover.

It's not your grandma's fiber anymore

where it's dried prunes and fiber supplements.

LISA: There are three steps in the F-Factor Diet.

The first one, you're cutting carbs

and you're eating about 35 grams of net carbs.

Then you increase that amount in step 2.

They can add more calories and carbs in.

And then step 3 is considered the maintenance phase.

SPEAKER: My understanding of the F-Factor Diet

is it's a diet by Tanya Zuckerbrot

and it's commonly used for people

who are interested in losing weight.

To be honest, I think her diet

is actually a healthy diet.

That is promoted by me in the clinic.

- I had started F-Factor a number of years ago,

and it's... really taken a big role

in my life in terms of how I eat.

[light music]

For years, I would resort to food

as a way to handle my problems.

At my heaviest, I know that I was

about 290 pounds.

I wasn't happy with myself.

I had tried Weight Watchers.

I had tried, you know,

different little diets here and there.

But I had never really been in it to win it.

One of my girlfriends had suggested

this F-Factor Diet.

When I got the book, I was really connecting to it.

I brought it with me to the grocery store

to reference it, to understand what kind of

types of cheeses and the meats that I could buy.

[bright music]

A hard thing for me with diets

is that you're always starving.

With F-Factor, the more fiber-rich foods I would eat,

the more full I was, and the less I would eat.

All you're doing is adding things.

Nothing is a no.

So this was just... the answer for me,

my Shangri-La, if you will.

I'm proud of how far I've come.

I continue to work on it.

But I was very gassy for the first month--

no question, and it was embarrassing for me,

and I was by myself. [laughs]

♪♪ ♪♪

LISA: While working there, I definitely learned the book

in and out. I had to know

exactly what to tell people if they have questions

about the diet itself.

I had to be familiar with the products

and the GG crackers that we often recommended to clients.

- They are all natural.

- And then from there, the protein powders

came into the picture.

- F-Factor Powder is a product

that you can use to get fiber

and add fiber to recipes

or to smoothies that otherwise wouldn't have fiber.

[moody music]

♪♪ ♪♪

LISA: I witnessed firsthand

the popularity

really just become stratospheric.

TANYA: Some of my celebrity clients include

TV personality Donny Deutsch,

Ana Ortiz from Ugly Betty,

and I'm the official dietician to Miss Universe organization,

so Miss Universe, Miss Teen USA, and Miss USA

all follow the F-Factor Diet.

LISA: She was selling product that people were buying

thinking that it was going to help them,

and then showing off all of her receipts.

TANYA: Hi, everyone. We are headed to the airport,

and I brought my breakfast to go.

This is an F-Factor 20/20

Frozen Raspberry Lemonade Smoothie.

- She was buying these expensive outfits

and going to these fancy places...

TANYA: This is beautiful.

Welcome to Tuscany.

- And living this luxurious life.

TANYA: Greetings from North Island.

This place is...magical.

♪♪ ♪♪

EMILY: Looked who I bumped into at lunch.

The queens of F-Factor nutrition,

and they're eating pasta.

When I first met Tanya Zuckerbrot,

I was randomly at Cipriani for my birthday.

And she was like, "Heard you say you're an influencer."

She's like, "What's your name?" I told her my name.

And she was like, "Oh, you should do a story."

You can be happy and F-Factor

and eat pasta.

We did the nice... "influencer" dance:

I'll follow you. You follow me.

And live your best life ever.

I never tried F-Factor.

The limited thing that I've done

is eaten some GG crackers.

[crunching]

[muffled] Disgusting. I'm sorry.

No.

[lightly edgy music]

That night, I was woken out of my sleep

feeling like I was getting stabbed in my asshole.

Eh, eh, eh! And I was like,

what's wrong with me?

Like, I thought I was gonna die.

It just was this horrible pain

which I guess turns out to be gas pain.

[lightly edgy music continues]

ANGIE: Fiber is good for you.

Fiber is great for you, and I actually

want everyone to eat a high-fiber diet.

Having said that, some people,

if they eat a high-fiber diet, especially if they go fast,

they can get bloated.

- It was a no go for me.

Anything that makes me feel like that

is not for me, like I'm done.

I actually unfollowed Tanya Zuckerbrot.

- It's our last night in Aspen.

Tomorrow, we head somewhere warm.

- She's always gloating.

She's always showing off,

and I was just like I don't wanna follow people

that don't make me feel good.

♪♪ ♪♪

Fast forward to July of 2020,

and a long-time follower of mine said to me,

"Have you heard about the controversy

with the F-Factor Diet?"

I said no.

She said there's these anonymous pages--

pagesixhaseyes...

bitsywhispers.

They were posting all these negative side effects

that people are getting from doing the F-Factor Diet.

[punchy music]

I end up looking into it.

I ask my followers, very broadly,

like, have you ever heard about this?

Slowly but surely,

I start getting messages.

People are sending me these really serious allegations.

"I have rashes and hives."

"I had kidney stones."

I'm having issues with colitis,

like I'm shitting my pants.

I ended up in the hospital.

One girl had a miscarriage.

That's horrible.

You know, her blood work came back high for lead

and she thought maybe it was from doing the diet.

I don't think any doctor has said

F-Factor has caused these symptoms,

but the only common thread

is that they're on this diet.

Initially, I didn't repost the things

that people were sending me.

I was kind of in the gathering stage of figuring out

like how many people are we talking about here

that have gotten sick?

And then, at some point,

those pages disappeared.

pagesixhaseyes and bitsywhispers

all of a sudden go bye-bye.

♪♪ ♪♪

And I feel like I'm in receipt of the truth

and these people are really getting sick,

and they're gonna continue to get sick if nothing is done.

I couldn't sit back and see these people

be silent and just sit there.

I'm getting all these messages. What am I supposed to do?

[edgy music]

So I shared them.

I've shared anonymous DMs that I got.

I had no idea what was gonna come to me.

And then I start getting harassed--

harassed, harassed, harassed.

[uneasy music]

EMILY: After I decided

that I was gonna talk about it,

I got an abundance of messages.

People were sending me

their symptoms.

They had all sorts of things all over people's body

that you would never want in your worst nightmare.

It's like the plague, it's like The Ten Commandments.

These are like crazy things.

And then people were saying F-Factor is deleting

all the negative reviews.

They were like, "Any time that I went to voice my opinion

on that page, I either-- my comment got deleted

or my comment got blocked.

I'm pissed off.

So I was reposting them.

People reading the stories that I was posting--

they knew I'm a fashion blogger.

It's not like I'm claiming on my page

that I'm some journalist.

So take with a grain of salt what you see.

My whole point was to help people

and provide information that would be useful to them.

[tense music]

And then I started getting anonymous threats.

♪♪ ♪♪

It felt like some sort of intimidation ring.

♪♪ ♪♪

I've been told I'm fat,

I'm disgusting, I'm a pig.

I'm a horrible mother. I'm a horrible wife.

I'm a horrible friend.

And then I got warned

that I better be careful.

I have extremely bad anxiety.

Turns out, yesterday,

I ended up having a panic attack,

which I haven't had in so long.

Um...they happen.

They suck.

Um...it was fuckin' horrible.

My husband was really not a fan

of me going down this path.

You know, he was like, what are you doing?

They're gonna sue you.

And I was like, well,

the story's getting a lot of attention.

[quiet music]

♪♪ ♪♪

Like people are really writing me,

and there's a lot of things coming in.

I was like, there's something here,

and they wouldn't come for me so hard if there wasn't.

[dramatic string music]

LISA: Working at that practice meant

prescribing and recommending the F-Factor Diet.

But some people struggled on it.

And then there's people who have side effects,

like GI issues from it.

It wasn't like they were being told,

like, doesn't matter, you have to follow this plan.

I was ready to help people, using my own discretion,

and using my own judgement,

and it felt like I wasn't able to do that fully.

EMILY: Up until my mid-20s,

like being skinny was extremely important to me.

What really changed my perception

is having my daughter

and wanting to be honest with her.

I couldn't look her in the eye and be like,

this is a healthy thing that you should do.

I don't feel comfortable doing it.

When I posed bikini videos, so many people said to me,

"Thank you so much,"

like it's so nice to see like a normal-looking body.

But I think that there's still a lot of pressure

to be...very thin.

[light music]

♪♪ ♪♪

- There isn't anything bad about wanting to be skinny.

There's only a problem

when sacrificing your mental and physical health.

That's when it becomes problematic.

People have really, really struggled

as a result of this diet

because it got so big on social media.

'Cause a lot of people on social media

are...are influenced, and it's consumed their life

because that's kind of what they were looking for

to begin with.

So in my private practice,

I don't recommend such a high-fiber diet

for anybody with an eating disorder

or even a disorder in eating and also for GI issues.

[moody music]

♪♪ ♪♪

- You do? Can I see it with also in the screen?

Sorry. I'm being really high-maintenance.

Okay. So that's with jacket.

Yeah, I think, okay, I think it's a vibe,

but let me just see without the jacket.

Do you know which is your better side?

I don't know. ANNA: I just know that

I'm better face-on than my profile.

RACHEL: My name is Rachel Greenspan.

I'm a journalist who has mostly covered

internet culture, social media,

platforms, influencers.

ANNA: I'm Anna Medaris.

I am an health correspondent at Insider.

In summer 2020, I reported on the F-Factor controversy

with my colleague Rachel.

It's a story about

people having a problem with a particular diet,

which is nothing new.

There's been plenty of diets in the past,

you know, people have come out and said,

"This gave me a stomachache."

I think what's different about this story

is the way that the F-Factor camp reacted to the backlash.

Typically, you'd expect

a diet company to say,

"Wow, we're sorry you're experiencing

"some GI distress.

"Why don't you stop taking that product,

and we'll look into it."

The F-Factor camp did not do that.

They were silent in response to the allegations.

In the meantime, Emily claims

these women were really suffering

and had been suffering for a long time.

And Rachel came to me and said,

"There's a social media scandal,

"and there's a big health component of it.

Do you wanna partner and look into this?"

RACHEL: We set out to

actually report on the story and not report on the fact

that Emily Gellis was posting these anonymous claims.

She was really not doing much fact-checking.

The question is, who are the victims,

what are they victims of, what's going on?

ANNA: Those first few days were a real race

to find sources,

but once you talked to one person,

they would recommend a friend of theirs to talk as well.

I talked to a couple of women with rashes,

with hair loss, amenorrhea,

GI distress.

When women began these products,

mostly the products and not the diet,

they started experiencing these issues.

And when they stopped those products,

their issues resolved.

So that gives you a sense that maybe it did have an influence.

But something that was really striking to me

that it wasn't until they saw these allegations

that they had kind of this light bulb go off

that maybe it is F-Factor.

RACHEL: We reached out

and asked to speak with Tanya.

Tanya hadn't spoken publicly about the controversy yet.

And I genuinely was surprised

that she was willing to speak to us on the record.

We were confident in the validity of sources

making allegations about the diet.

As confident as we could be,

considering there's no way to really prove 100%

the diet caused X, Y, and Z.

It was me and Tanya both on the phone.

I was just sticking to the facts

of, well, women are saying this, though,

so what do you say to that?

Do you not think there's any truth to them?

Tanya said, "I'm shocked by these allegations.

"We've rarely, if ever, heard these kinds of complaints

about our products."

But we did find that she had received

many comments on Instagram

making these allegations against F-Factor in the past,

and that her team had deleted those comments.

And when asked about that,

she said something to the effect of,

"We thought that was slander.

"We know that our products are safe,

"we know that our diet is safe,

"and so someone making these allegations about our diet,

it's just not true, so why would we leave that up there?"

I remember her voice was like,

"Can you believe that people are saying this about me?"

She very much was considering herself

kind of a victim of some sort of "cancelation"

in that moment, and she really thought this was like

a "smear campaign" made up by Emily.

After we spoke to Tanya, she almost immediately

does start commenting on the allegations.

- So, guys, um,

thank you for joining me today

to, um, share what has been

a very challenging time.

Um...

for many months, I have been dealing with something

and I have tried to take the high road...

um...and not engage.

ANNA: When she finally did speak out about it,

Tanya was very kind of protective of the diet.

- These were anonymous accounts

that were spreading hate...

and the most vicious, horrific lies about me,

the F-Factor program,

and the safety of the F-Factor products.

- People were saying certain things about her.

Um...she seemed, like, very upset.

- This is not just trolls in the basement

saying, "I don't like Tanya," or, "I don't like

the taste of her products."

This was with a targeted intent

to harm me and discredit me.

- It became kind of a battle between the two

that was playing out on social media,

and each is attacking the other in kind of the same way.

- You're a psychopath, and you're a criminal, and...

- This is criminal.

It is absolutely criminal what happened here.

- The devil goes for the best people.

[siren wailing]

[edgy music]

- It was the thick of COVID.

[crowd noise]

There was a lot of really weighty,

important things going on in the world.

And all of a sudden,

people care about this

diet drama on the internet?

[tense music]

♪♪ ♪♪

I would think that in some ways,

people wouldn't care, because they're like,

this is so petty in comparison of like

what we're going through as a world

and a society right now.

On the other hand, I think we all just, like,

wanted to forget about some of these bigger issues

and, like, get sucked into some kind of petty drama

in some ways.

- How do you respond to a lie?

It's a he-said, she-said.

- I'm spreading lies?

These are people's personal stories

they're sending to me.

- Why do you feel the need

to tear down another woman

and another woman's platform

in order to make a name for yourself?

- I'm spreading the truth.

I'm sorry if it fucking hurts.

ANNA: I think Tanya

was understandably kind of drowning

in a social media feud.

- I was white, I was affluent. It was easy to come for me.

If I was a minority, if I was poor,

I don't think these women would have dared

to have done this.

- Let's get it straight.

Don't fucking confuse

cyber-bullying

with people trying to speak their truth,

because that's all that I've ever posted about.

- This has been an interesting experience to watch unfold.

How they respond to each other--

we could be talking about diet.

We could be talking about something else.

- It's my city now.

It's my city now.

The tale of two cities. [rustling]

I'm taking this city back from you.

- "My city now"?

Who is she, Leona Helmsley?

No...no sane person would speak like this.

- You're sick. You're sick in the head.

- She is a angry, sorry,

bitter, jealous,

miserable, unhinged

young lady who needs help.

- You're a powder-pushing, money-hungry,

disgusting, gaslighting greedy woman,

and I will put every victim on the record on my page

until justice is served.

- I know God has chosen me to do his work.

God has chosen me to...

inspire people to live their best lives.

It's why God gave me these blue eyes and these teeth,

so I can draw you people in.

[uneasy music]

RACHEL: People are watching these two influencers

essentially fighting with each other on Instagram.

A lot of my friends and family members

were like texting me and DMing me, being like,

"Wait, I've been obsessed with following this on Instagram."

[dark music]

- She wanted attention,

she wanted followers, which she got.

I think she grew 60,000 followers

from her attacks on me.

- Yeah, I think I gained, overall,

it's a net positive gain of followers,

but I've lost a lot of people too.

- No. Getting followers is not my motivation.

But it means something when I see them

rallying for me.

RACHEL: Emily could have come to the media

rather than doing this.

You could have said, hey, ladies,

here's this New York Times reporter.

Here's this Insider reporter.

Share your story.

And I remember we did catch wind

that The New York Times was working on the story

at the same time.

[dramatic chords]

♪♪ ♪♪

There was this one post from Emily

that someone had alleged to her in DMs

that they had a miscarriage.

And they believed it was because of F-Factor

because one of the allegations was the F-Factor products

had too much lead.

And the doctor was like, you have an insane amount

of lead in your blood.

Come to find

The New York Times reports

that, actually, that woman... didn't exist.

[somber music]

- I'd gotten a bunch of messages

with serious illness reports and claims,

so hearing an allegation of somebody having a miscarriage

wasn't entirely shocking to me.

I only found out that it was made up

once a reporter for The New York Times told me

that the story was purposefully planted

to prove that anyone could say anything on the internet.

The story comes out.

And then Tanya did a Live.

- For those of you not aware,

someone sent in a claim to a blogger

and she wrote, "I've been using F-Factor products,

and I had a miscarriage."

And this blogger, without fact-checking,

reposted this.

There's possibly nothing more damaging

to a company

that is intended to help people,

get them healthy,

than the accusation that the products

cause a baby to die.

EMILY: It did not make me look good

to end up sharing a story that was made up.

It was a mistake. Of course, right away,

I told people, this is very disappointing

that this happened.

I would never wanna share misinformation.

I was duped purposefully by somebody.

- If you think for a second

that I would plant a story

about F-Factor and a miscarriage,

you literally have to be the dumbest person on the planet.

RACHEL: The New York Times did report that that woman

is a cousin of an F-Factor executive.

[intense music]

- I had nothing to do with it.

I was horrified when this story came out

and I found out who it was, because I do know her socially.

And people say, well, her cousin works at F-Factor.

Guess what. They don't speak anymore because of this.

[keyboard keys clicking]

EMILY: To the best of my ability, I vetted the claims

that came through.

Of course I wanna make sure that these people are real,

that these claims are real.

Influencers are not about to start fact-checking

the way, you know, journalists do to post things.

They're just not.

[dramatic string music]

♪♪ ♪♪

- I wouldn't expect Emily to fact-check

the way we do.

I mean, she has a different job entirely.

♪♪ ♪♪

- It gets to this kind of interesting ethnical question,

I think, of if you are an influencer,

without the resources of a journalist

to actually do that fact-checking that's required,

why would you even bother feeling comfortable enough

to share those things?

- I don't know. I really didn't think about it.

Like, again, I have nothing to gain

from posting something that I don't think is real

on my page--it would be detrimental to what I do.

People trust me. [chuckles]

They buy products based on what I say

and they believe in me and they trust me.

If not for that, I don't have a career...

on Instagram.

[classical music]

♪♪ ♪♪

FRANCINE: The F-Factor Diet can be very life-changing.

Emily Gellis hadn't even been on it

and had the gall to talk about this

and say it in such a way

that it was not just sharing

but that the stuff had to have lead in it,

that it had to be poison, practically.

Like, that just blew my mind.

♪♪ ♪♪

EMILY: I don't have a medical background

to validate that it's 100% these things,

but can the doctor say, 100%,

you had this because of something you were doing

that you're not doing anymore?

It's the difficult thing to say.

What's the common denominator?

In these women's cases, or many of them,

it seemed to be F-Factor.

ANGIE: If someone says, "I feel bloated,"

I mean, there's no objective data to discern

whether they're being honest.

But so what?

There's gotta be a certain level of common sense used

where, if you're getting a little bit of

bloating and discomfort,

that means you're just doing way too much.

You should cut down.

Unfortunately, Tanya has to defend herself.

- Joining us now for an exclusive interview

is founder and CEO of F-Factor, Tanya Zuckerbrot.

Tanya, good morning to you.

- Good morning.

- A lot of the women were pressuring F-Factor

to come out with a Certificate of Analysis

to verify what ingredients were really in the products.

And so, having the Certificate of Analysis,

which is a third-party report,

would sort of help them solve this mystery

of what might be going on.

RACHEL: She, like, timed the release of this analysis

and this report with her Today Show appearance.

and she's like, well, here, guess what.

We do have the COA here for you right now.

- Because of the recent health concerns

of the products,

we are releasing the Certificate of Analysis

because it will show that our products

are 100% safe for consumption.

A Certificate of Analysis

shows testing for trace metals,

for microbiological content,

which tests for things such as E.coli.

Anything grown in the soil, even organically,

including strawberries, cucumbers, spinach, and rice,

can contain trace amounts of metals.

It does not mean that they are not safe for consumption.

[dramatic music]

EMILY: They had me on The Today Show

to ask me, like, what I did and why I did it.

People have shared with me

that after doing the F-Factor Diet,

a range of symptoms, including, but not limited to,

hives, rashes, bleeding,

extreme gastric distress,

trips to the hospital, getting colonoscopies,

having tests run.

I want these women to have their voices heard.

I want justice for them,

whatever that might be.

- By using a platform

to attack another,

you create this mob mentality.

It's not just one person trying to

knock down the door of a house.

It's a mob of people trying to burn that house down.

♪♪ ♪♪

Now, if the statements are true

that these products cause sickness in people,

then perhaps that's what's deserved.

But if the statements are false

and the motivation is,

"I'm doing this because it's gaining me popularity"...

- It's a war.

That was a battle. This is gonna be a war.

- That's someone that should be held accountable.

- You fucked all of society in the ass.

[muttering] moms are pissed,

the hedge fund husbands are not happy.

They don't wanna eat the arsenic either.

[moody music]

DAVE: I think, unfortunately, people don't appreciate

the impact their statements can make

when they're sitting behind a computer screen.

I'm Dave Wishnew.

I'm a partner at Crawford, Wishnew & Lang.

For a lawyer looking from the outside,

Emily has a platform,

and it's a powerful platform.

A influencer, a blue check mark

can use that platform to build up a brand

and sell products.

That same person can use that platform

to take down a brand or take down a person,

take down someone's business.

The damage that can be done is immeasurable.

[background chatter]

- I found out I was being sued from a reporter.

And I was like, "What lawsuit?"

I hadn't even been served yet.

She then sent it to me.

You know, I had an initial, like, upset reaction.

I have no words.

I would never [mutters] right.

I cannot even breathe.

I cannot believe how disgusting and dirty you people are.

Like, literally.

- I'm not suing her to silence her

or to make her feel financial pain.

The reason I'm suing her

is to make sure she doesn't do this again.

Because if she doesn't learn a lesson,

she will do this again.

She will do it to someone else.

[perky music]

- It's certainly not surprising that Tanya sued her.

Emily's father is an attorney

and kept saying to her,

"Why are you doing this? You should stop doing this."

And her sister said

something similar.

They were like, "Girl, what is going on?"

Why are you this, like,

you know, vigilante like Spider-Man of fiber?

[laughter]

DAVE: The main trust of that lawsuit

are claims that 4,500-plus statements made by Emily

were false and defamatory

and have injured Tanya and her business.

Um, and caused great financial and emotional harm.

And then they intend to demonstrate

how that statement is false.

She doesn't put high levels of arsenic in her products.

That it's not causing miscarriages.

♪♪ ♪♪

ANNA: In the lawsuit, Tanya affirms

that her diet and products are safe

and denies Emily's claims that she threatened her

or sent others to harass and bully her.

- Not one gossip rag about me,

not one negative piece of press--nothing.

I had worked really hard for my reputation.

And in six months, she destroyed it.

- Tanya's lawyers have stated

that she's lost 90% of her income

and will ultimately ask the jury

to award her money to make up for

for both the past losses and any losses in the future.

- I remember when we got it.

My stomach sunk.

EMILY: My lawyers were like, we're gonna countersue,

because this is your First Amendment right.

DAVE: Emily's lawyers have argued

that Emily is protected from liability

The argument being that she is a user,

but she is providing a platform

and that she is merely posting,

um, statements made by other third parties.

Twitter and Facebook cannot be held liable

if a user posts a statement of fact that is false

just because it's on that platform.

But the judge has stated

that Emily is not a internet service provider.

She is a content provider.

She is making her own statements.

The judge also dismissed her counterclaims.

ANNA: The judge wrote that to win her defamation claim,

Tanya needed to show that

Emily knew her statements were false

or recklessly disregarded

whether they were false or not.

So Emily has the opportunity to defend herself there.

But the judge also wrote,

"Although the First Amendment gives Gellis broad freedom

"to express her thoughts and opinions,

"she does not have legal immunity

to publish false factual information."

♪♪ ♪♪

EMILY: That wasn't a great decision.

We're appealing it.

But if I don't prevail,

then I think everybody will be deleting their Instagram.

That basically you have no First Amendment rights,

which is very scary.

ANNA: You'd think that at some point

these women would just stop attacking each other

and let it play out in court instead of on Instagram,

but that just never seemed to happen.

- You can't just say things...

using Instagram as fact,

because if that was a newspaper,

a newspaper you could sue.

But Instagram is like the Wild West,

and there is-- there's no precedent right now.

There's no...there's no laws that she was breaking.

It's her First Amendment right is what she's claiming.

But we're gonna prove otherwise.

We're gonna prove there was malice.

- You are out of

your fucking minds.

Like, you have...

more screws loose

than I ever knew.

And if you think that you're gonna keep

going on fucking Live and talking about me,

and that I'm not gonna go right back on Live

and talk about you, you're also insane.

[heavy music]

♪♪ ♪♪

EMILY: Tanya sued me for millions of dollars

that she knows I don't have.

I believe it was meant to silence me.

Meanwhile, her loyal followers

continue to personally harass me, and they never stop.

MIKE: People are dedicating

their time to

bullying my wife and my wife's family.

A-at one point, it was my unborn child,

and then my baby was born,

and [inhales] it was just horrible.

EMILY: I'm not just gonna lie down

and let her talk about me all day

without, you know, defending myself.

So I don't like that it's become that,

but that is what it is.

Here's the complaint, right?

4,500 defamatory-- harassing.

In your dreams, I would harass you.

You're not important enough.

- It is so disheartening that despite being slapped

with a multimillion dollar lawsuit,

she still has not learned her lesson

and continues to spread lies.

Girl, when are you gonna wake up?

[ambient background noise]

EMILY: In March of 2022,

I was at the park with my daughter,

and I got a text message from the New York Post:

"She sued you again?"

I was like, are you fucking kidding?

[intense musical de-escalation]

[plucky, suspenseful music]

EMILY: She sued me.

She put everyone else on notice:

"You do something, I'm gonna sue you."

- I will state on the record

anyone...anyone

who has been lying about me

or F-Factor is on notice.

- I had experience working there.

And so I felt it was part of my responsibility

to speak out about it.

- Lisa Moskovitz, don't forget why you were fired.

So for you to jump on this...

you are a disgruntled ex-employee.

- There's three sides to every story.

What she's saying about me doesn't bother me.

I know my truth. I know what happened.

I know it didn't happen like that.

I think the lawsuit

was meant to make Emily

an example for other people

that had similar platforms

and power to speak out about it

for fear of being sued.

[plucky, edgy music]

- She's the most litigious person.

Like, she enjoys lawsuits. I think it's sport for her.

RACHEL: We published a follow-up story

about Tanya's kind of like

huge, litigious efforts

against people speaking out about this,

which ended up including us.

We got that email to

our editor in chief saying

you need to retract

this one statement.

ANNA: The letter was begging us

to retract allegations

that the F-Factor Diet caused a miscarriage,

which we didn't report, period.

RACHEL: It's all kind of smoke and mirrors in a way.

They're trying to scare you.

ANNA: A nonissue, but... - Yeah.

- I guess it-it showed that the article

mattered to them. RACHEL: Exactly.

DAVE: Instead of focusing on the claims of defamation

against Tanya's business

and the F-Factor Diet,

the focus of the second lawsuit

are allegations of defamation

that Emily has made against Tanya personally.

Now Emily's gotta fend off two lawsuits.

- I didn't know people could be so evil.

I really didn't.

And now I know.

Now I've learned. [sniffling]

People can be this mean.

Society can be this dark. Ha.

- This was not a small thing.

This was my life, and this was my life's work.

And this was my legacy. This was...

my child. I birthed F-Factor.

I had F-Factor before my kids.

[soft music]

EMILY: I'm not a journalist. I wasn't trying to be

a journalist--I've always said that.

I was blowing the whistle,

letting people share their comments.

- In the perfect world,

Instagram and TikTok and all these platforms

were used in ways to spread scientific data.

But that is just impossible to control.

Because anyone could have a voice on Instagram.

So it's very important to clarify

that fiber is benign.

EMILY: People can support Tanya.

People can love F-Factor.

Mind you, at the same time,

my followers have been super supportive,

and especially like when I've

come into legal situations,

they've tried every way they can to support me.

The last two years, our life is insane.

- It really was a very difficult time.

- I appreciate that you've, like, stood by me.

- Sometimes I wish that you didn't do it,

'cause then you can focus on the things

that you really love.

I mean, the reality of the situation is

it's taken a toll on us,

it's taken a toll on you, me.

But overall, I think the most important thing

is that you've done a really good job

in helping people, obviously.

- I mean, how many people have come up to us

in the last two years and said thank you?

- I-I can't even count.

- So, like, even if I said

if I only helped one person,

then I would have to say that it was worth it.

Mike, actually, is initially the one that had the idea

to do merch,

just like he had the idea for the website.

It goes towards my legal bills that are exorbitant.

- Honestly, it's just-- it's my beautiful life.

It represents our ability to, you know...

- Pivot. - Pivot.

At the end of the day, we can lie down and cry,

or we can do something about it.

- Lipstick. - Okay.

- See? He made the face.

DAVE: If I'm Emily and Emily's lawyers,

I would hope that some of these anonymous sources

right now would be filing claims,

filing lawsuits against Tanya's company, right?

Because if those conditions actually did happen,

that would support Emily's claims

that what she was saying was true.

- Let the victims fight for this.

The so-called victims.

And yet, there's no class-action lawsuit,

yet not one person has come forward.

Where did all her victims go?

[edgy music]

♪♪ ♪♪

ANNA: The latest twist in the story

is these women coming forward

and claiming that F-Factor products

can cause intestinal blockages,

gastric pain, disorder eating,

severe allergic reactions,

and other significant health issues.

Not surprisingly, in Tanya's response,

she denies all the allegations.

So that will be another suit

that continues to play out in court.

TANYA: Are you insane?

RACHEL: This dumb, silly, trivial social media drama

is likely going to be a multiyear legal battle

between these two women.

TANYA: Try to intimidate anyone from supporting me.

- Emily has made it clear

that she's not willing to, like, back down.

She really sees herself

as kind of like a hero in this tale

and kind of a martyr in a way,

and so I don't think it's gonna end well for-for anyone.

I think it's gonna cost everyone involved

a lot of money.

ANNA: Both Emily and Tanya have gone on social media

to talk about how this has impacted them,

and it continues to take its toll.

- Nothing that I'm gonna do

is gonna change anything.

It's not. She's gonna still...

rant about me every day.

She's gonna say the same things about me.

She's gonna just go on.

It's gonna go on and on forever.

It's never gonna end. [crying]

It's literally never gonna end,

and I don't want this to be my whole life.

I really don't. [sniffles]

- When all this happened, and it happened so swiftly

and so viciously,

I pretty much fell apart.

I was not prepared.

You may see me as an influencer.

I'm a clinical registered dietician

who has authored two books.

I have been an expert for Women's Health magazine

for Men's Fitness magazine,

for Fox News.

I was their nutrition contributor.

To suggest that I would harm people's health

for profit is the most hurtful accusation

anyone could ever say about me.

[perky music]

♪♪ ♪♪

RACHEL: IF it were me, I'd go, all right,

let's wrap it up.

Let's-let's make a show together...

- Go on TikTok together... RACHEL: Yeah.

- And start a new platform, yeah.

EMILY: I'm not gonna just abandon the victims

of this woman and of this diet.

I believe these women.

So I guess this is the consequence

for standing up for people.

- Well, to Tanya, I'd like to say thank you,

because there are people

that have absolutely benefitted from it,

um...myself included.

- I want you to be educated

rather than influenced.

I want you to understand how your body works.

- [whispering] My God.

I will have a really hard time

meeting another Tanya and being nice to them.

I have PTSD.

[laughs]

♪♪ ♪♪

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

[mellow guitar notes]