The founder of a banned Antifa Twitter account that encouraged violence against far-right activists is a military veteran and former teacher accused of “brainwashing” students.
Heidi Beedle, 38, has previously admitted to founding the Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists profile and blog, which reportedly “[instructed] comrades to attack people.’
Twitter banned the account last week as part of a crackdown on profiles accused of inciting violence. The group had posted the identities and addresses of alleged far-right activists and encouraged violence against them.
Beedle, a trans woman who is now a reporter for the Colorado Times Recorder, launched the account and blog several years ago when she was a teacher. She told DailyMail.com that she cut ties with the group “in late 2018/early 2019” and has not had access to the accounts since.
Beedle has previously spoken about coming out as transgender around 2014 when she was a teacher, and how the experience led her to become “increasingly anti-fascist activism.”
Beedle, pictured in front of an Antifa banner, has admitted to launching the banned account but says she cut ties with the group in 2018 and has not had access to the account since. She claims recent iterations of the account were started by a person she doesn’t know
The account, which was suspended last week, was accused of “instructing comrades to attack people and directing members to find out the home addresses, phone numbers of targets”
She first admitted to launching the Colorado Springs Antifa accounts in tweets from October 2019. The tweets surfaced in a report by Andy Ngo, a conservative reporter at the Post-millennialafter the closure of the Twitter account.
Ngo also shared a selection of Beedle’s 2016 blog posts in which she revealed that a parent complained about her teaching students about “comparisons of Trump to Hitler.” In another post, Beedle said she had a student borrow a copy of a book that had “a kinky sex scene” and “a lot of drug stuff.”
In a Twitter thread, Ngo said: “[Beedle] was a teacher and wrote about how she politically brainwashed the students. She also wrote about giving a child a book with kinky sex to celebrate trans month.’
He added that the Antifa account, which had 15,000 followers, was “used for years to instruct comrades to attack people and instruct members to find out the home addresses, phone numbers of targets.”
Beedle, who has previously spoken publicly about her Antifa links, said Ngo’s reporting is “sensational and wildly inaccurate.”
Beedle, a teacher turned reporter, has claimed reports of her links to the Colorado Antifa cell are “massively inaccurate”
A message from the account in November 2022 stated: ‘A nationwide recall has been issued for all transphobic teeth’
She told DailyMail.com that she has not been involved with the Colorado Springs Antifa group since “late 2018/early 2019.”
“I haven’t had access to any social media or blog accounts since that time,” she said.
“I don’t know anything about who currently runs the Antifa account or blog, who have migrated platforms since I left.”
She admitted she started with the “original” account, but added “the account that was suspended was, I think, the second or third iteration.” It had been interrupted and remade at least once since I left, if I remember correctly.’
Beedle said: ‘Ngo’s coverage will have no impact whatsoever on what anti-fascist activists do and will continue to do. Anyway, I thank them for their service.’
Musk said all accounts inciting violence will be removed from Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion in October 2022.
In an October 2021 podcast, Beedle talked about how she joined the anti-fascist movement.
She said that before transferring she had spent eight years in the army and had risen to the rank of sergeant.
Beedle, who was previously named teacher of the year in School District 49 in Colorado, told The Craig Silverman Show that she came out as transgender “about halfway through my teaching career,” which “exposed me to a lot of different kinds of activists.”
“As I was teaching, I got more and more into anti-fascist activism,” she said, adding that “you could call me Antifa.”
“Basically I was just kind of a nerd, doing a lot of research and contributing to a blog and you know, exposed white supremacists. Guys from extremist groups like the Proud Boys,” she said.
“I did that for a few years and then you know, between activism and teaching and life, I just kind of got burned out on everything and sort of stopped and walked away from that whole scene.”
She joined the Colorado Springs Indy as a reporter for a general assignment focusing on “political extremism,” including white supremacist activities. She now writes for the Colorado Times Recorder.
Her work has been hailed as “invaluable” by Democrat Rep. Stephen Woodrow.
The Colorado Antifa account was suspended after Elon Musk promised to remove all accounts inciting violence.
The ban came amid a Twitter crackdown on accounts accused of inciting violence. Antifa is a movement that rose to prominence after the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and often encourages attacks against right-wing targets it considers “fascist”
Twitter has banned several far-left profiles seemingly linked to Antifa, which has thousands of cells across the country. Pictured: Antifa activists prepare to burn an American flag during Denver State Capital’s January 2021 inauguration
The group is one of several banned far-left profiles seemingly linked to Antifa, which has thousands of cells across the country.
A month earlier, Ngo shared concerns about the group’s presence on Twitter in a reply to a post from Musk, urging users to report issues with the site that he should address following his much-publicized takeover.
Musk — who at one point argued against a ban, saying he would reverse one on Donald Trump — responded by stating that “incitement to violence” to any degree “will result in account suspension.”
When several accounts related to the terror group were gutted last week, members of a Portland cell threatened arson and attacks on Musk’s Tesla dealerships as a method of retaliation.
Aside from several Antifa affiliates, those suspended include an anti-fascist group that provides armed security for LGBTQ+ events in North Texas, and CrimethInc, a conservative collective that has been critical of leftist movements since the mid-90s.
A contraction of the phrase “anti-fascist,” Antifa refers to the group’s sprawling network of far-left militants across America’s fifty states, as well as other countries, who oppose beliefs that suffer as fascist, racist, or the views of consider right-wing extremists. .
The group rose to prominence in 2016, following the election of Donald Trump, who in 2020 — while continuing to appear in high-profile clashes across the country — attempted to classify the group as a terrorist organization.