As a journalist, she has worked for the Russian state-owned[3] international news agency Sputnik (2015–2017), far-right[8][15] American conspiracy theory[19] websites Big League Politics (2017) and The Gateway Pundit (since 2017), as well as Timcast (since 2021).
As an activist, she is best known for "Find the Dancing Man," her 2015 social media campaign against fat shaming, and for helping to organize the DeploraBall in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the 2017 inauguration of President Donald Trump.
[2] In 2015, MacDonald spent several months with Black Lives Matter in Ferguson, Missouri, amid civil unrest stemming from the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer.
[23] In 2015, photos posted on the anonymous chat board 4chan[21] created what the BBC called one of the year's "biggest internet sensations"[24] by showing an obese, 47-year-old Englishman dancing exuberantly at a concert.
[26] With a friend, MacDonald created a GoFundMe account to locate the man and fly him to Los Angeles for a celebrity-packed party with 1,000 guests[27] at Avalon Hollywood, one of L.A.'s hottest clubs.
[20] In January 2020, she was named as a witness and her communications were subpoenaed in the defamation lawsuit between NPR and Ed Butowsky over reporting and conspiracy theories about the murder of Seth Rich.
[31] In 2020, MacDonald claimed that trespassers set upon her house during on the night of May 31, pounding on windows, detonating fireworks directed towards her residence, and shooting firearms; she blamed Antifa for the incident.
[43] In January 2020, National Public Radio subpoenaed MacDonald seeking documents and electronically stored information relating to her conversations with Assange, among others, including journalists.
[45] The evidence consists of screenshots and recorded phone calls spanning October 2018 – September 2019 that MacDonald had with Arthur Schwartz, identified by The New York Times as a "conservative consultant who is a friend and informal adviser to Donald Trump Jr.".
[46] On February 27, 2020, The Daily Dot reported that MacDonald posted audio of a September 2019 phone call from Schwartz to her in which he stated that Ambassador Grenell "took orders from the president" in brokering Assange's arrest.
The barrister representing the U.S. government questioned the partiality of MacDonald, an acknowledged WikiLeaks supporter, and argued that "the truth of what Ms. Fairbanks was told by Arthur Schwartz was not in her knowledge."
In January 2018, MacDonald provided a complimentary ticket and VIP wristband for Chelsea Manning to attend "A Night for Freedom" gala for Trump supporters.