# Le Roy and the Social Media Tic Outbreaks · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Cult Dossier · No. 169 · Moral Panic / Mass Hysteria
Le Roy and the Social Media Tic Outbreaks
Mass social media induced illness; MSMI; TikTok tics; functional tic-like behaviours
2011 – present · Le Roy, New York; then Germany, Britain, Australia, Canada and beyond
XVI. CONTAGION — SYMPTOMS THAT SPREAD WITHOUT A PATHOGEN
None.
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- OCTOBER 2011 At LE ROY JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL in western New York, students begin developing tics, verbal outbursts and seizure-like episodes. TWENTY PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED BY JUNE 2012: NINETEEN STUDENTS, EIGHTEEN OF THEM GIRLS, AND ONE 37-YEAR-OLD WOMAN. Treating neurologists diagnose conversion disorder.
- LATE JANUARY 2012 ERIN BROCKOVICH IS CALLED IN and investigates contamination from a 1970 RAILWAY DERAILMENT near the town as a possible cause. The families wanted a physical explanation, which is an entirely reasonable thing to want.
- 2012 STATE AND SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING FINDS NO ENVIRONMENTAL OR INFECTIOUS AGENT capable of causing the symptoms.
- OCTOBER 2011–JUNE 2012 The outbreak runs its course. IT IS DESCRIBED AS THE FIRST SUCH OUTBREAK IN WHICH REPORTS SPREAD SUBSTANTIALLY THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKS RATHER THAN ONLY FACE TO FACE — the affected watched one another on video.
- 2019 onward A GLOBAL RISE IN SUDDEN-ONSET, SEVERE, TOURETTE-LIKE BEHAVIOUR IN YOUNG PEOPLE, tracking the popularity of tic content online. The presentations resemble each other far more than they resemble Tourette syndrome, and IN GERMANY clinicians trace an outbreak to a single “virtual” index case: one of the country’s most popular YouTube creators.
- 2022 MÜLLER-VAHL AND COLLEAGUES PUBLISH IN BRAIN, arguing this is not Tourette syndrome but a new form of mass sociogenic illness, and proposing the term MASS SOCIAL MEDIA INDUCED ILLNESS.
- SEPTEMBER 2022 The same group describes 32 patients in detail. Nearly all have identifiable psychological stressors, and 94 per cent have other psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety or depression.
### Its people
### Kirsten Müller-Vahl
—
Neuropsychiatrist; described mass social media induced illness · — · active 2019–present
Before the law. None.
Where things stand. No death record was found at the time of writing, and this file makes no claim about her current post. HER DISTINCTION MATTERS CLINICALLY AND NOT ONLY ACADEMICALLY: these patients are genuinely ill and are helped by different treatment than Tourette patients, which is why getting the label right is not a semantic exercise.
- 2019 A global rise in sudden-onset functional tic-like behaviour begins, tracking the popularity of tic content online.
- 2022 Publishes in BRAIN, proposing MASS SOCIAL MEDIA INDUCED ILLNESS.
- 2022–present Prospective cohort work distinguishes the presentation from Tourette syndrome.
Checked 2026-09-05
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