If you’ve been online recently, you’ve likely noticed an alarming proliferation of anti-LGBTQ+ hatred. One study found a shocking 406% increase in tweets using “groomer” and “pedophile” as slurs in the month following the passage of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill alone.
The explosion only makes sense, given the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ hatred within the GOP at large. Conservatives have spent the last few years villainizing queer and trans people for political gain; for pundits like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, accusations that LGBTQ+ people are “grooming” and “sexualizing children” are the latest tactic to inspire a moral panic among their base. On the right, those ideas often first take hold online, and within conservative circles on social media, few accounts have come to hold as much power as Libs of TikTok.
Libs of TikTok — the name of a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms run by a woman named Chaya Raichik — has catapulted from a relative unknown to a right-wing media force. Raichik mostly reposts videos, photos, and screenshots designed to stir the ire of her followers, touching upon everything from COVID to conspiracy theories about child sex trafficking rings. Yet the vast majority of her output now concerns the LGBTQ+ community, calling out teachers for sharing their pronouns with students and hospitals for offering gender-affirming care to adolescents.
The account’s posts often include the names, social media handles, and other identifying information of its subjects, leading to harassment campaigns against the individuals and organizations it spotlights, and its missives have been amplified by the likes of Joe Rogan, Glenn Greenwald, and more. Raichik’s obsessions often go on to become mainstream topics of conservative discourse. She commands the attention of some of America’s most powerful right-wing politicians, and her influence has empowered the account’s conservative fanbase to threaten and protest children’s hospitals, teachers, school districts, drag shows, and more.
Here’s what you need to know about the rise of Libs of Tiktok and the hateful ideology of its creator, Chaya Raichik.
What is Libs of TikTok?
Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) is the handle of a right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+ social media presence, most popular on Twitter. It often peddles misinformation and alt-right propaganda, fueling outrage about hot-button issues and events, like all-ages drag shows, gender-affirming care for trans youth, and more. These sometimes include outlandish and false claims, like posts about a second grade curriculum teaching children about furries or a conspiracy theory that schools had installed litter boxes for students identifying as cats. Often, the page reposts TikTok videos or social media posts from others, adding commentary to humiliate and draw negative attention to the user, whose name or handle is rarely censored.
While the account doesn’t always explicitly encourage followers to do anything, its posts have sometimes led people to harass or physically threaten its subjects. In one instance, a group of five Proud Boys members disrupted a Drag Queen Story Hour at a public library, spewing homophobic and transphobic insults at attendees, which investigators believe was spurred by Libs of TikTok.
Who is Chaya Raichik?
The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz identified Chaya Raichik as the creator of the account that eventually became Libs of TikTok. When the account began, Raichik was living in Brooklyn and working in real estate, though she might now be living in California, per some of her anonymous interviews.
Prior to becoming @libsoftiktok, the account existed under a number of different handles, which Raichik used to post right-wing propaganda, election fraud conspiracies popularized by QAnon, and tirades against Democratic politicians. On January 6, 2021, she claimed to be on the ground at the U.S. Capitol insurrection, tweeting her personal account of the day. However, none of these accounts gained real traction until Libs of TikTok saw shoutouts from Fox News stars Tucker Carlson and Jesse Waters, both of whom have featured content from the account on cable television.
Despite using her platform to make unprovoked, unverified, and harmful claims against LGBTQ+ people, Raichik believes that the Post’s exposé of her identity is a violation of her right to free speech. She and her supporters have accused those who exposed her of doxxing, but Lorenz pointed out that Raichik’s information was publicly available, since she used her full name to register the Libsoftiktok.us domain.
What are the real world implications of the rise of Libs of TikTok?
Alt-right social media accounts are anything but rare, but Libs of TikTok has garnered an unprecedented amount of right-wing media and political attention. The growing platform given to Raichik has devastating consequences, particularly for the LGBTQ+ community.
Today, the account boasts over 1.3 million followers on Twitter alone, partly thanks to its popularity amongst conservative pundits and personalities. Joe Rogan has given Libs of TikTok a glowing recommendation several times on his podcast, which has an estimated 11 million listeners per episode.
When Libs of TikTok targets a person or institution, the account’s followers often descend to harass and threaten the target. The account regularly reposts teachers who take to social media to talk about their challenges and triumphs as queer educators; those teachers have frequently reported being threatened by the account’s followers following such posts. A Salt Lake City tea shop that hosted a family-friendly drag show reposted by the account reported facing a barrage of attacks and negative Yelp reviews. The account even encouraged followers to call Child Protective Services on a trans couple who had recently welcomed a newborn child.
The account has also fixated on children’s hospitals, leading campaigns against healthcare providers like Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., and others for providing care for transgender adolescents. Its posts have included misinformation, falsely claiming that both hospitals perform hysterectomies on young girls (spokespeople for both have clarified that they do not provide such procedures for minors), which has led to bomb threats and threatening emails and calls. Childrens' hospitals in Seattle, Chicago, and Portland have also been targeted due to the account’s focus on transgender care for youth.
The reach of the account isn’t limited to its ability to incite harassment and threats, which would be enough to deem it a scourge. Libs of TikTok advances anti-LGBTQ+ talking points, particularly those that posit that queer people are “grooming” children, which are being used to garner support for devastating legislation, like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Christina Pushaw, the press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, actively engages with Libs of TikTok on a regular basis, offering her praise for the content shared. When asked about her relationship with the account, Pushaw told the Washington Post “I follow, like and retweet libsoftiktok. My interactions with that account are public." She added that she’s “a strong supporter of its mission.”Tweeting in support of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill that was later signed into law, Pushaw tweeted that the legislation would be more accurately called an “Anti-Grooming Bill.”
What are platforms doing to stop Raichik from spreading misinformation and hate?
The short answer is that social media platforms are not doing enough, not only to limit Libs of TikTok’s ability to spread hate, but also to protect LGBTQ+ people in general. In its second annual Social Media Safety Index, GLAAD evaluated social media platforms on their rules against deadnaming and misgendering, inclusivity training, policies to protect LGBTQ+ people, and more. All platforms scored less than 50 out of 100 possible points. It’s easy to see why.
After Libs of TikTok’s posts incited death threats against Boston Children’s Hospital staff, the account was suspended from Facebook. Sadly, the suspension lasted less than a day. Twitter has suspended Raichik’s account in the past, including once in April, after the account misgendered an individual, and more recently this September for “hateful conduct.”
GLAAD points out that many of Libs of TikTok’s posts are in conflict with both Facebook and Twitter’s policies. Facebook’s Hate Speech policies clearly delineate the types of posts on Libs of TikTok as violations of their terms of service, in which they prohibit dehumanizing speech and expressions of contempt toward specific groups. Twitter’s Hateful conduct policy has similar language, barring users from directly attacking or threatening people based on sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity among other things. Twitter goes so far as to say that they don’t allow accounts whose primary purpose is to incite harm on the basis of these categories.
It’s long past time for social media platforms to take a stand against accounts like Libs of TikTok because of the dangers they pose to people both online and offline. It’s not too much to ask; just look at what happened to Andrew Tate.
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