Russell Dick, co-founder of B4U-ACT, a non-profit organization that promotes resources for self-identified individuals who are sexually attracted to children, told AFP that his organization hasn’t seen “any MAPs trying to become part of the LGBT movement but have seen some MAPs denying it in apparent response to such accusations.” However, no evidence suggests a concerted effort to push for the inclusion of MAPs in the LGBT community with the use of the flag. Together, these articles and forum posts were shared more than 20,000 times on Facebook, according to social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. In 2018, news websites such as The Daily Caller and LifeSite News claimed that pedophiles were attempting to be included in the LGBTQ community, while on the online forum 4chan, a user looking for “images that prove LGBT community is advocating for pedophilia,” was given the flag as a reference. This sort of warning post began to flourish on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook in June 2018, and resurfaced in 2019 during Pride Month.
