Libs of TikTok

Libs of TikTok is a handle used by a series of far-right, anti-LGBT extremist"Chaya Raichik". Southern Poverty Law Center. social media accounts run by Trump supporter(May 30, 2024). Post by Libs of TikTok, via archive.today. (Original link). Chaya Raichik . The account has become highly influential in conservative circles, and it has over 2.8 million followers as of January 2024.Libs of TikTok. Social Blade. The central narrative pushed by the account is "grooming", the lie claiming that LGBT people are pedophiles manipulating children into sexual deviancy.What is 'Grooming?' The Truth Behind the Dangerous, Bigoted Lie Targeting the LGBTQ+ Community", ADL The concept went mainstream after Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a law banning classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation in grades K-3 in Florida public schools, with his press secretary accusing the bill's opponents of being "groomers".
Raichik's posts on Twitter have been directly linked to transphobic and homophobic threats, violence, and attempted terrorist attacks. Incidents include bomb threats against a school in Wisconsin, a near-riot at Idaho Pride, and threats against a Jewish summer camp.Elad Nehorai, "Libs of TikTok is fueling a pogrom against trans youth", Forward, 29 August 2022 False claims that Children's National, Boston Children's and other pediatric hospitals were performing gender-affirming surgeries on children led to the hospitals being inundated with harassment and threats of violence.Shannon Bond, "Children's hospitals are the latest target of anti-LGBTQ harassment", NPR, 26 August 2022 Boston Children's Hospital received three bomb threats within just a couple of months.Susannah Sudborough, "Boston Children’s Hospital received another bomb threat, police say all clear Boston Children’s Hospital received another bomb threat, police say all clear", Boston.com, 16 November 2022 The account again received national attention in November 2022, when it drew attention to a Colorado-based drag charity only hours after a gay night club massacre in Colorado Springs.Chantelle Billson, "Libs of TikTok attacks Colorado drag shows hours after deadly LGBTQ+ club shooting", Pink News, 21 November 2022
In a sign of the GOP's disdain for education in favor of angry "anti-woke" trolling, in January 2024, Oklahoma State Superintendent appointed Raichik to the Oklahoma State Department of Education Library Media Advisory Committee. This despite Raichik having no residency in Oklahoma, nor any qualifications for this job, nor any other connection to the Oklahoma school system (other than the tidbit that her angry followers likely have made bomb threats against Oklahoma schools after some of her posts.)"‘Libs of Tik Tok’ founder is literally the last person who should be on a library board" by Rep. Mickey Dollens, Minority Whip for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, MSNBC, 2024 January 29"Oklahomans to Libs of TikTok's Chaya Raichik: 'Stay out of our state'" by Trudy Ring, Advocate, 2024 March 6"After Libs of TikTok posted, at least 21 bomb threats followed" by David Ingram, NBC News, 2024 February 7
==Background==
Chaya Mushka Raichik was born on January 2, 1995.Tweet by Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10)Tweet by Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10)Expired real estate license from OpenGovNY Growing up in Los Angeles in a large, Orthodox Jewish family, she attended all-girls religious schools.Taylor Lorenz, "Meet the woman behind Libs of TikTok, secretly fueling the right’s outrage machine", Washington Post, 19 April 2022 She has stated that she has seven siblings and "about 400 first cousins." Prior to becoming a right-wing political agitator, she worked as a real estate agent in New York City. She has also claimed to have been a teacher and camp counselor. Raichik is currently unmarried but hopes to "have a lot of kids" to "outbreed the Left."Tweet by Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) An engagement announced in April 2023 was reportedly broken off by the would-be groom.Tweet by ChudsOfTikTok (@ChudsOfTikTok)
Within the Chabad-Lubavitch community, "Chaya" is a common female given name, typically given in tribute to Louis Keene, "Mistaken for a right-wing media star, she met a cyberbullying mob", Forward, 21 April 2022 Raichik is similarly a common surname among Chabad Jews.Ron Kampeas, "The Twitter activist behind the far-right ‘Libs of TikTok’ is an Orthodox Jew. Does that matter?", Jewish Telegraph Agency, 19 April 2022 This has led to cases of mistaken identity. An influencer named Chaya Raichik, originally from Los Angeles but now residing in England, was harassed by trolls after a journalist mistook her for LoTT. (Many older clickbait profiles of LoTT used photos taken from this woman's Instagram.) Another NYC-based Chaya Raichik, author of a book about the Jewish ritual bathing practice known as quips on her website that she is "not a real estate agent" and "also not a twitter, instagram or tiktock influencer.""Jewish. Married. Woman? Treat yourself this Pesach!", COLLive, 7 April 2022"Get To Know The Author", MikvehStories.com
==Building a hate machine==
===Early activity===
Raichik was driven online while "cooped up in her house all alone" during the COVID-19 pandemic. In her own words, "I went on TikTok and I was like, oh my God, this is like a cesspool of insanity and mental illness." In November 2020, she created the Twitter account that would become @libsoftiktok under the handle @shaya69830552, changing this to @shaya_ray before the end of the month. Initially, Raichik ran a typical right-wing "reply account", responding to tweets from more prominent conservatives.Claire Goforth, "Libs of TikTok—the influential, mystery Twitter account hailed by mainstream conservatives—attended Jan. 6 Capitol protest", The Daily Dot, 18 April 2022 She trafficked in far-right fodder like COVID-19 denialism and 2020 U.S. presidential election conspiracy theories.
On January 6, 2021, Raichik used her Twitter account to document her presence at the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot.Lily Wakefield, "Shameless anti-LGBT+ social media influencer Libs of TikTok attended Capitol insurrection", Pink News, 19 April 2022 In a play-by-play account, she indicated that she got close to the clash with Capitol police, tweeting that a rubber bullet "hit right next to me" and sharing a video labelled "tear gas in action." Afterwards, she downplayed the violence during the riot, claiming that only "a few crazy people" actually "stormed the capitol and went inside," and asserting it was "very peaceful" in contrast to a BLM protest.Chris Persaud, "Libs of TikTok creator backed by Babylon Bee CEO of Juno Beach", The Palm Beach Post, 10 May 2022 Examination of video and photos of the Capitol riot after Raichik's first in-person interview with Tucker Carlson in December 2022 appear to confirm her presence.Chad Loder, "Chaya Raichik appears to have trespassed at the Capitol", 27 December 2022Lindsay Dodgson, "The woman behind Libs of TikTok revealed her face on Fox News, leading to video seeming to show her at the Capitol on January 6", Insider, 28 December 2022
===Rise to lame===
Raichik cycled through multiple Twitter handles in early 2021, finally settling on @libsoftiktok on April 19, 2021. The Libs of TikTok account initially promised to "help you find your daily dose of cringe," re-posting pro-vaccination songs found on TikTok.Jeremy Stahl, "The Hate-Fueled and Hugely Influential World of Libs of TikTok", Slate, 27 April 2022 It deliberately pivoted to anti-LGBT content for Pride Month in June 2021. This shift quickly launched the LoTT account into ring-wing celebrity status. The account grew from less than 1,000 followers in early 2021 to 1.3 million in September 2022, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Jeremy B. Merrill, "Trump’s ‘big lie’ fueled a new generation of social media influencers", Washington Post, 20 September 2022 amplified by exposure from well-known conservatives like Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, and Glenn Greenwald. 
The LoTT account's current schtick involves re-posting content from left-leaning and LGBT people. Raichik and her defenders claim that these reposts simply "hold a mirror up to the left".Roderick Graham, "LibsofTikTok's Interviews Prove She's Not Unbiased. She's Generating Anti-LGBTQ Hate", Newsweek, 3 January 2023 Tucker Carlson, in his December 2022 interview of Raichik, stated that what she has done through LoTT is "bring to light, publicize what they ['libs'] are already saying in public." What these analyses neglect is that Raichik isn't simply an unbiased reporter, but a propagandist who strategically packages reposted content in a misleading, inflammatory manner.Christopher Wiggins, "Club Q Shooting Comes Amid Increased Attacks on LGBTQ+ Venues", Advocate, 20 November 2022 The LoTT account exists to bring LGBT and left-learning targets to the attention of a hostile far-right audience.Catherine Caruso, "Libs of TikTok is Engaging in Stochastic Terrorism", 19 August 2022 Critics have pointed to this as an example of that allows Raichik to maintain a veneer of plausible deniability while inciting her followers to action.Even Urquhart, "The Anti-Trans Hate Account That Bari Weiss Says Is Yet Another Right-Wing Voice Censored by Twitter", Slate, 9 December 2022
Raichik seemingly had ambitions of building Libs of TikTok into a brand from an early stage. A trademark application for the account's first logo (based on the stylized TikTok musical note) was filed by Federalist Society-associated lawyer Grant Lally in August 2021.ChudsOfTikTok, "The artificial growth of hate speech", 12 December 2022 The current logo was registered by Lally in December 2021. Raichik registered the domain LibsofTikTok.us under her own name in October 2021.Rob Beschizza,"'Libs of TikTok' unmasked in Washington Post exposé", BoingBoing, 19 April 2022 Seth Dillon, her business associate, first incorporated Libs of TikTok LLC in Delaware in December 2021, and then as a foreign corporation in Florida in March 2022.
===Identity revelation===
Libs of TikTok was nominally an anonymous accountOne of the many handles cycled through by the account in early 2021 was @ChayaRaichik with the display name "Chaya Raichik." This means Raichik publicly revealed her wallet name to the world over a year before Lorenz's article was published. The domain LibsofTikTok.us was registered in her name in October 2021. Raichik's identity could have been deduced before Lorenz's article by anyone who knew how to do a search or look up a Twitter account ID. Software developer Travis Brown first connected the dots between Raichik and the LoTT account (Lorenz duly credits his work in her article). until Washington Post reporter broke the story that identified its owner as Chaya Raichik on April 19, 2022. This provoked accusations of "doxxing" from the conservative commentariat.Grayson Quay, "Conservatives complain of 'doxxing' after exposé reveals woman behind 'Libs of TikTok' account", The Week, 19 April 2022Dominick Mastrangelo, "Washington Post defends Taylor Lorenz reporting after story on ‘Libs of TikTok’ Twitter account", The Hill, 19 April 2022Christopher Wiggins, "Anti-LGBTQ+ 'Libs of TikTok' Exposed, Conservatives Are Extremely Mad", Advocate, 20 April 2022 Alt-right YouTuber Tim Pool, with the help of Daily Wire co-founder and razor peddler , went so far as to buy a billboard in Times Square proclaiming "Taylor Lorenz doxxed @libsoftiktok.""Times Square Billboard Exposes Taylor Lorenz for Doxxing Libs of TikTok", Washington Free Beacon, 26 April 2022Bryan Babb, "'We're Shining A Light On You': Massive Billboard Goes Up In Times Square Slamming The Washington Post", The Daily Caller, 26 April 2022Libby Emmons, "Tim Pool blasts WaPo, Taylor Lorenz in Times Square billboard over Libs of Tik Tok doxxing", The Post Millennial, 26 April 2022 Raichik echoed this accusation against Lorenz, stating that her critics were seeking to "intimidate [her] into silence," and vowing that "unfortunately for them, that's just never going to happen."Mark Moore, "Chaya Raichik won't be ‘silenced’ despite ‘Libs of TikTok’ outing", The New York Post, 20 April 2022 The LoTT account nonetheless gained 200,000 followers in the 24 hours after the article's publication.
Lorenz has stated that, while investigating the story, she visited a Los Angeles address "linked to Raichik's name", but that the woman who answered the door "declined to identify herself."Madeline Halpert, "Right-Wing Figures Attack Journalist Taylor Lorenz For Revealing Creator Of 'Libs Of TikTok'", Forbes, 19 April 2022 The Chaya Raichik from LA (mentioned above) confirmed in an interview with that this woman was her mother. By her account, she belatedly discovered several "urgent" inquiries from Lorenz on the night of April 17, having not used her phone for two days due to Passover. Lorenz was trying to confirm whether she was behind LoTT. She replied, telling Lorenz "you have the wrong Chaya," and asked Lorenz to leave her alone. Lorenz visited her mother's residence on April 18. That same day, the Chaya Raichik of LoTT fame somehow caught wind of this incident, asking Glenn Greenwald to report it to "deter Taylor from stalking more people." Greenwald blasted out a tweet charging that Lorenz "showed up at the house of the relatives of the citizen behind @libsoftiktok and badgered them."Glenn Greenwald on Twitter, 19 April 2022. (Reporters have noted such visitations are standard journalistic practice.Tom Jones, "Digging into the Taylor Lorenz controversy that should not be a controversy at all", Poynter, 21 April 2022) The Chaya Raichik from LA asserts she has never met LoTT and does not know how they are related. 
For her part, Lorenz maintains that her detractors are attempting to "sow doubt and discredit journalism,""Taylor Lorenz discusses'Libs of TikTok' and her reporting practices", Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter (CNN podcast), 21 April 2022 and both she and the Post have stood by the integrity of her reporting. In a tweet, Lorenz revealed that, due to the article on LoTT, her family and even "random friends I've tagged on Instagram" had been doxxed and stalked.Michael Starr, "Unorthodoxxed: US Right, Left clash on orthodox Jewish activist's 'doxxing'", The Jerusalem, 21 April 2022
===Jewish community reaction===
A group of 2,000 Orthodox rabbis belonging to the conservative lobby group the released a statement demanding that the Washington Post apologize for outing Raichik soon after the publication of Lorenz's article.Adam Sabes, "Orthodox rabbis demand apology from Washington Post after identifying Libs of TikTok owner as Orthodox Jew", Fox News, 20 April 2022 The rabbis held that her faith was "entirely unrelated" to the story, deeming its revelation "simply unacceptable" given that "Jews constitute a small minority, yet are disproportionally targeted by hate crimes." 
 writing in the countered that "Jews are visible and assertive in public life," questioning why Raichik "deserves special handling" when she has "willingly placed herself at the white-hot center of our national argument."Andrew Silow-Carroll, "Why the 'Libs of TikTok' founder’s Jewish identity was fair game", Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, 27 April 2022 of the Forward was far more pointed in his judgment that the LoTT account is a "shanda" (disgrace) that is "fueling an early-stage pogrom against trans youth and their allies." He compared LoTT's propagation of the "groomer trope" to the antisemitic blood libels of the past, finding that it "preys on people's fear for their children, which then justifies the most extreme actions in response."
In an article by of the Jewish Telegraph Agency, Elchanan Poupko, a rabbi, speculated that the anger over Raichik's unmasking expressed within the Orthodox community may have been influenced by cultural mores. According to Poupko, "there remains a degree of stigma associated with posting on social media among haredi Orthodox Jews" given their traditional avoidance of technology, but that it can be "all right to engage, but it's better if it's done anonymously." Kampeas noted that women "within both haredi communities and the Chabad movement" are becoming more active on social media, developing "influencer personas" with focuses as "diverse as religious observance, fashion, parenting and antiracism." Poupko further observed that Orthodox women have more freedom on social media than Orthodox men due to the "belief that women are better equipped than men to withstand temptation."
The rise of LoTT has drawn wider attention to the spread of far-right ideology within Orthodox spaces.Joshua Shanes, "Of course 'libs of tiktok' is Haredi", Jewschool, 2 May 2022 In his JTA article, Kampeas noted that Raichik isn't unique as an "Orthodox Trump supporter", remarking that she is "renewing conversation about how deeply some members of the Orthodox community are embedded in the American far right." Left-leaning Hasidic Twitter user Shulim Leifer has attributed this shift to the development of an ecosystem of "pithy and withering" Orthodox political dialogue within "closed groups on apps like WhatsApp." He further mused that "anyone shocked that a frum [devout] person could be an unhinged right-wing maniac" has not looked at their friends' WhatsApp statuses "for the last 6 years." Joshua Shanes, in a trenchant piece for the blog Jewschool, declared that "Orthodoxy – and Chabad especially – has become a MAGA religion." Twitter user @Evel has similarly remarked that the "rapid radicalization of orthodox communities in recent years is dark and twisted."
==Painting a target on her ideological opponents==
Libs of TikTok has been credited as one of the driving forces behind a wave of anti-LGBT hate and violence in 2022.Taylor Lorenz, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Peter Jamison, "Twitter account Libs of TikTok blamed for harassment of children's hospitals", Washington Post, 2 September 2022Reina Sultan, "How Libs of TikTok Became an Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate Machine, Them, 30 September 2022 Her most frequent targets are all-ages and youth-focused drag events, healthcare providers that offer gender-affirming care to young people, and elementary and high schools supportive of LGBT students.
By February 2024, NBC News was able to identify 33 instances, beginning in November 2020, where people or institutions singled out by Libs of Tiktok later reported bomb threats or other violent intimidation; this likely understates the true count. While Raichik claims that she does not support threatening the subjects of her posts, she has rarely criticized the threat-makers or urged them to stop, and even after the NBC News report continued to post highly exaggerated or untrue conspiracy theories, frequently use doxxing as a tactic."After Libs of TikTok posted, at least 21 bomb threats followed" by David Ingram, NBC News, 2024 February 7 The following is but a sample of violent threats that have been linked to a Libs of Tiktok post.
====Hospitals and healthcare providers====
*August 2022: LoTT took aim at in a series of tweets, falsely accusing it of performing hysterectomies on minors as part of its gender-affirming care program.Yacob Reyes, "No, Boston Children's Hospital doesn't provide hysterectomies for children", PolitiFact, 12 August 2022 This provoked death threats against doctors and staff, and a bomb threat on August 30 that forced the hospital into lockdown.David Gilbert, "Far-Right Extremists Are Threatening to ‘Execute’ Doctors at a Children’s Hospital", Vice News, 17 August 2022 A second bomb threat against Boston's Children's Hospital followed on September 9.Frank O'Laughlin, "Police investigating after another bomb threat made against Boston Children’s Hospital", Boston 25 News, 9 September 2022 And then a third bomb threat came in on 16 November.
*August 2022: in Washington, D.C. received an influx of harassment and threats after Raichik published a recording of a "sting" phone call in which she posed as a mother seeking a hysterectomy for her pretend 16-year-old trans son.Peter Jamison, "Children’s hospital threatened after Libs of TikTok recording on trans hysterectomies", Washington Post, 27 August 2022Harm Venhuizen, "D.C. children’s hospital harassed over trans youth services", Associated Press, 27 August 2022 
*In total, 24 hospitals and healthcare providers across 21 U.S. states were targeted for providing gender-affirming care in 2022, according to a report from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.Ron Southwick, "Threats and harassment: 24 hospitals targeted for providing gender-affirming care", Chief Healthcare Executive, 18 December 2022
====Drag events and drag performers====
*June 2022: Proud Boys stormed a event at a library in San Lorenzo, California , after the event was signposted by Libs of TikTok.Kim Bellware, "Proud Boys disrupt drag-queen reading event, prompting hate-crime probe", Washington Post, 13 June 2022Dani Anguiano, "Group of men storm Drag Queen Story Hour in California in possible hate crime, The Guardian, 13 June 2022Claire Goforth, "'Target selection for domestic terrorists': Libs of TikTok accused of inspiring Proud Boys to menace local drag queen library show", The Daily Dot, 13 June 2022 They shouted homophobic and transphobic slurs at attendees, which reportedly "totally freaked out all of the kids."
*June 2022: On June 11, police in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho arrested an "army" of 31 members of the white nationalist group hiding in a moving van, shortly before they could disrupt a pride event.Odette Yousef, "31 members of the white nationalist Patriot Front arrested near an Idaho Pride event", NPR, 12 June 2022Michael Edison Hayden, Far-Right Influencers Hyped Coeur d’Alene Pride Before Patriot Front Showed Up", Southern Poverty Law Center, 14 June 2022 Libs of TikTok and other far-right figures spent weeks leading up to the event negatively reporting it to their followers.Emma Bowman, "Far right groups shift focus to LBGTQ events. Their hateful aim hasn't changed", NPR, 20 June 2022 
*July 2022: An LGBT+ youth center in North Bay, Ontario received a barrage of harassment after LoTT reposted a promotional video for a planned drag event.Ashleigh-Rae Thomas, "Far-right Twitter account Libs of TikTok targets Ontario LGBTQ2S+ youth centre for hosting drag show", Xtra! Magazine, 15 July 2022Brody Levesque, "Libs of TikTok extremist group attacks Canadian LGBTQ youth center", Washington Blade, 11 July 2022 
*November 2022: Only nine hours after the over midnight on November 19-20 at a gay nightclub called Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado left 5 dead and 25 wounded, LoTT singled out a Colorado-based charity that educates youth in drag performance.Shira Li Bartov, "Hours After Club Q Shooting, Right-Wing Account Attacks Colorado Drag Group", Newsweek, 21 November 2022 
*December 2022: On December 3, two electrical substations in Moore County, North Carolina were deliberately sabotaged in what has been widely speculated was an attempt to shut down a drag event at a small-town theatre, leaving 45,000 county residents without power for several days afterward.Hannah Schoenbaum, "NC power grid attack stokes fear in rural LGBTQ community", Associated Press, 8 December 2022Bil Browning, "Woman accused of sabotaging electrical grid to stop drag show says 'extremist leftists' did it," LGBTQ Nation, 8 December 2022
"Terrorists Attack A Drag Show In Moore County, North Carolina", Pride.com, 4 December 2022 LoTT had retweeted a promotional flier for the drag event a few weeks prior in November.
====Schools, teachers, and librarians====
*April 2022: A middle-school English teacher in Oklahoma received death threats and was forced out of his job after LoTT reposted a TikTok video of him expressing support for LGBT youth shunned by their families.Lily Wakefield, "Teacher targeted by Libs of TikTok sent death threats and lost his job: 'I was accused of grooming'", Pink News, 20 April 2022Scott Martin, "Parents divided after former Owasso teacher resigns following viral TikTok videos", Fox 23 News, 14 April 2022
*May 2022: After a string of bomb threats in May 2022, the entire school district of Kiel, Wisconsin was shut down for the remainder of the year.Mario Koran, "Bomb threats, canceled events, empty schools: How a bullying probe in Kiel paralyzed the Wisconsin town's democracy", PBS Wisconsin, 3 August 2022 In the preceding days, three Kiel families had gone to local media outlets claiming their middle-school sons were facing a Title IX investigation for bullying a non-binary peer, but the story went viral after Libs of TikTok publicized it. 
*May 2022: A fourth-grade teacher in Utah resigned after LoTT shared a video of her expressing happiness that her students were "figuring out who they are" and had "found a safe place" in her class.
*July 2022: A Jewish summer camp in California was subjected to a "social media offensive" after LoTT tweeted about its policy of trans inclusion.Mira Fox, "Libs of TikTok is now targeting a Jewish summer camp", Forward, 7 July 2022Jackie Hajdenberg, "A Jewish camp is reassuring families amid a ‘social media offensive’ over its inclusion of trans children", Jewish Telegraph Agency, 8 July 2022 
*July 2022: A -area teacher was inundated with abuse after a doubly misleading tweet by LoTT.Beck Andrew Salgado, "Followers of right-wing forum Libs of TikTok harass a Tosa first-grade educator for teaching pronouns at past job", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 20 July 2022 LoTT reposted a photo of him with the quote "we had a great pronoun discussion," describing him as a first-grade teacher in the school district. However, the photo and quote were posted to Instagram in 2021 when the teacher was working in another district, and he was not due to begin teaching at a Wauwatosa elementary until September. LoTT targeted a friend who defended him, another teacher based in Chicago.Oliver Haugh, "The Conservative Campaign to Attack, Silence, and Harass Queer Teachers", Them, 15 September 2022
*September-December 2022: In September, a high school in Oakville, Ontario received a bomb threat by phone.Kevin Connor, "Oakville's Trafalgar High School target of 'anonymous' bomb threat", Toronto Sun, 23 September 2022Adrian Humphreys, "Bomb threats at Oakville school over trans teacher linked to threats against Boston Children's Hospital", The National Post, 6 December 2022 The school had come under fire from right-wing pundits including LoTT after reports of a trans teacher wearing large prosthetic breasts.Ryan Rocca, "Oakville high school at centre of teacher attire controversy receives bomb threat", Global News, 16 November 2022Alejandra Caraballo on Twitter, 22 December 2022.An anonymous user of 4chan claimed on September 22 that a student of Kayla Lemieux – the fake breast-wearing shop teacher in question – had posted the previous day. This student reportedly stated that Lemieux was "almost fired for 'toxic masculinity'" in 2021 due to "drop[ing] redpills to [the] class" such as ranting about gender-neutral bathrooms. The September 22 poster speculated that Lemieux is only pretending to be a trans woman in order to "get fired, and then sue for discrimination." Conservative outlets have similarly speculated that Lemieux could be pulling an elaborate stunt to own the libs: American Thinker wondered if they were looking at a "conservative troll", UnHerd asked if the case might be a "hoax", and PJ Media said Lemieux might be the "hero we need right now." Trans-rights supporters, in a rare moment of agreement with transphobes, seem to largely concur with the assessment that Lemieux is a troll. In at least one interview, Lemieux claimed not to even be transgender, but rather intersex, though this was likewise dubious. On November 16, the school received another bomb threat by email, forcing it into lockdown and closure for the day. Six more emailed bomb threats were made against the school over the next month. The email address used to send the November 16 threat to the Oakville high school was linked to one used to send threats to Boston Children's Hospital and a California senator.Julian Wood, "Bomb threat against California senator linked to Oakville school fears", CanadaToday.com, 9 December 2022 
*October 2022: A middle-school teacher from Huntsville, Alabama received death threats and was suspended from his job after LoTT tweeted about a September drag queen story event where he performed – for dogs! – at a local animal rescue.Matt Kroschel, "UPDATE: Huntsville teacher in drag show uproar says he’s been put on paid leave", WAAY31, 14 October 2022Daniel Villarreal, "Animal rescue gets death threats after drag queen reads to dogs", LGBTQ Nation, 15 October 2022Christopher Wiggins, "Drag Queen Story Hour Results in Death Threats Against Animal Shelter, Advocate, 17 October 2022Madeleine List, "Dog rescue's drag queen story time leads to death threats, it says. 'Not backing down'", SunHerald, 17 October 2022 The rescue and its staff were also barraged with death threats to the point they sought FBI protection. 
*December 2022: A K-12 private school in Chicago was forced to evacuate after receiving a bomb threat, five days after LoTT and other right-wing outlets promoted an edited Project Veritas undercover video of the dean discussing sex ed classes.Nader Issa and Tom Schuba, "Francis Parker evacuated due to bomb threat days after right-wing attacks on sex ed program", The Chicago Sun-Times, 12 December 2022Greg Owen, "A bomb threat was made at a Chicago school after right-wing media published an edited sex-ed video", LGBTQ Nation, 19 December 2022
*August 2023: A Tulsa, Oklahoma area school district faced six consecutive days of bomb threats, beginning on August 22 when state superintendent boosted Libs of TikTok. In her tweet, Raichik shared a satirical TikTok video in which a school librarian in the district claimed to be "pushing" a "woke agenda," omitting the caption explaining that this means "teaching kids to love books and be kind."
*August 2023-February 2024: Oklahoma City educator Shane Murnan resigned in February 2024 after months of harassment over his side gig as a drag performer. The campaign began in August 2023 after Murnan, a teacher and sometime drag queen for the past 26 years, started a new job as an elementary school principal. Murnan stated that he "never had a problem with his dual identities" until he found himself in conservative crosshairs. Libs of TikTok's tweets lead Ryan Walters to call for Murnan's sacking. Bomb threats were directed at Murnan's home and the school. According to Murnan, the school told him he "could resign or be terminated," reportedly citing the "cost of security."
*September 2023: A school district in Dewitt, Michigan was hit with "countless messages on social media, emails, and phone calls" after Libs of TikTok took aim at a retired teacher. LoTT reposted a video from the teacher-turned-full-time-mom recommending a number of banned books. The "chaos" lead to police presence at every school in the district within a day of LoTT's tweet.
*February 2024: A male high-school science teacher in Lewisville, Texas was placed on administrative leave after a February 14, 2024 tweet by Raichik. The tweet featured photos of the teacher in feminine costumes and suggested he has a "fetish for wearing women's clothing." Students explained that the pictures were taken at special events and on "dress-up days." One launched a petition to reinstate the teacher that gathered 20,000 signatures. The teacher resigned in March in a decision "largely motivated by the 'hateful comments' posted online."
====Other targets====
*April 2024: In March 2024, a woman named Patricia Silva became uncomfortable with a purported transgender woman "shaving in the women's bathroom" of a location in Fairbanks, Alaska. Claiming that this was an "invasion of privacy", Silva took a photo of this person in the women's locker room. As Silva's own invasion of privacy violated Planet Fitness' policy on mobile phones in the locker room, Silva's membership was terminated."Planet Fitness defends banning customer who reported 'man in women's locker room'" by Jackson Walker, WPDE, 2024 March 15 Raichik was infuriated by this story, and took to Twitter to post multiple tweets encouraging her followers to boycott Planet Fitness. Naturally, given Raichik's audience, this led to 54 bomb threats made to various Planet Fitness locations in April 2024."How an inclusive gym brand became a battlefield over LGBTQ rights" by Taylor Lorenz and Gus Garcia-Roberts, Washington Post, 2024 April 28, archived on 2024 April 28
*July 2024: After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, Raichik targeted over 50 people who had made off-color jokes about the event. The most notable was guitarist , who was recorded wishing "don't miss Trump next time" for his birthday at a concert in Sydney, Australia. Frontman issued a grovelling apology and announced the band's tour plans were cancelled in response to the backlash. An English professor at Bellarmine University in Kentucky was sacked after Raichik retweeted a similar comment made on Instagram. Other people who lost jobs after Raichik put their jokes on blast included a Home Depot employee in New York state, a restaurant worker in Michigan, a respiratory nurse in Florida, and a fire chief, volunteer firefighter, political aide, and community relations manager in Pennsylvania. Some of Raichik's supporters felt she was inciting a witch hunt by targetting minimum-wage workers along with public figures. The Washington Examiner and Reason published op-eds accusing Raichik of cancel culture.
==="Groomer" slur===
Hateful slander linking queerness to pedophilia is nothing new. From at least the 1960s, gay men were accused of "recruiting" or "grooming" boys into homosexuality, typically through the insinuation of abuse.Canadian Anti-Hate Network, "Trans People Are Being Slanderered As Groomers And Pedophiles By The Far-Right, 7 April 2022 This moral panic was beginning in the early 2020s.Patrick Strudwick, "‘Groomer’: How the dangerous new anti-LGBT slur from America is taking hold in Britain", i, 26 April 2022 "Groomer" emerged as a general slur for LGBT people during this time.
Libs of TikTok's popularity has been credited with spreading the "groomer" narrative. Raichik first accused the LGBT community of "grooming kids" in a pair of June 2021 tweets. For a time, she avoided the slur, but picked it up again in November 2021, declaring the LGBT suicide-prevention charity to be a "grooming organization." Twitter banned the use of slur in mid-2022, stating it was "committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice, or intolerance."Claire Goforth, "Twitter says it bans using ‘groomer’ as an anti-LGTBQ slur—but its enforcement is lacking (updated)", Daily Dot, 21 June 2022Lily Wakefield, "Twitter says calling trans and non-binary people 'groomer' is hate speech", Pink News, 22 July 2022 However, enforcement of this policy at the time was described as "uneven," "patchy", and "lacking," a situation some attributed to Twitter's then-ongoing buyout by a certain chud billionaire.Kyle Dent, "Despite ban on 'grooming' slur, Twitter takes no action on hateful posts", 16 August 2022Ari Drennan, "Twitter says slandering LGBTQ people as “groomers” violates its rules. The enforcement has been extremely uneven.", Media Matters, 22 July 2022 
On October 27, 2022, the day that Elon Musk officially took over Twitter, Libs of TikTok published a tweet containing nothing but the word "groomer" repeated 13 times, apparently testing whether the new management intended to let her practice freeze peach without consequence.Christopher Wiggins, "Elon Musk's Twitter Is 'Hellscape' for LGBTQ+ People, Critics Say", Advocate, 2 November 2022 A joint study by Media Matters and found that use of the "groomer" slur skyrocketed on Twitter in the two months after Musk's acquisition.Todd Spangler, "Anti-LGBTQ ‘Groomer’ Slur on Twitter Surges Under Musk’s Ownership, Report Finds", Variety, 13 December 2022 Libs of TikTok's mentions saw a 600% increase of the slur in that period, jumping from almost 2,000 instances to almost 14,000.
===2024 interview with Lorenz===
In late February 2024, Washington Post reporter interviewed Raichik. This interview was conducted shortly after Raichik was appointed to an Oklahoma school advisory committee, and also shortly after the (a non-binary Oklahoma student who committed suicide a day after they were bullied in a school bathroom) highlighted the hostile climate towards LGBTQ in the state."How ‘Libs of TikTok’ became a powerful presence in Oklahoma schools" by Taylor Lorenz, Washington Post, 2024 February 24, archived 2024 February 2024 Raichik, whose penchant for trolling was such that she even made and wore a special T-shirt featuring a derogatory image of Lorenz in an unsuccessful attempt to get Lorenz angry,"Libs of TikTok Creator Claims ‘Not All Cultures Are Equal’" by Brooke Leigh Howard, Daily Beast, 2024 February 25 came across in the "painful, agonizing" interview as the sort of vapid, willfully ignorant "petulant teenager" that would do such a thing, desperately trying to be an edgelord while unable to coherently answer even basic questions about her ideology."In a viral video interview, Libs of TikTok founder endorses an antisemitic conspiracy theory" by Mira Fox, Forward, 2024 February 26"Behind Taylor Lorenz’s ‘painful, agonizing’ interview of the Libs of TikTok activist" by Tom Jones, Poynter, 2024 February 26""They're importing people who want to destroy America" says Libs of TikTok founder in revealing interview" by Jennifer Sandlin, Boing Boing, 2024 February 25
During the interview, Raichik, claimed that she was proud of being accused of being called a Despite being Jewish, in a discussion about illegal immigration, Raichik endorsed the antisemitic Great Replacement Theory. When Lorenz reminded Raichik that many who subscribe to this theory believe that Jews are among the minorities trying to replace white people, Raichik's bizarre reply was "not all cultures are equal". Unsurprisingly, Raichik revealed that she had little if any contact with LGBTQ individuals in real life, only learning about them from videos online."Watch Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik exposed in stunning, cringe-worthy interview" by Christopher Wiggins, Advocate, 2024 February 26 Raichik had trouble even articulating her transphobia, insisting that "the whole trans, it's based on a lie" while being unable to explain exactly what harm transgender people are doing to others that is making her mad.
===Stochastic parrot of reactionary memes===
Unsurprisingly, Raichik is anti-"woke". Unsurprisingly, like many Republicans and conservative pundits, Raichik cannot really define what "woke" is."Anti-woke Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik can’t define ‘woke’ at College Republicans event in Indiana" by Christopher Wiggins, Advocate, 2024 April 3
==A little help from one's friends==
===Seth Dillon===
The rise of Libs of TikTok was apparently championed by Seth Dillon, the owner of The Babylon Bee, a Christian conservative knock-off of The Onion. In April 2022, after Raichik was identified as the face behind the LoTT account by a Washington Post report, Dillon announced that he was financially supporting her.Christopher Wiggins, "Twitter Suspends Libs of TikTok While Account Owner Vows Legal Action", Advocate, 30 September 2022 In a tweet, Dillon proclaimed that "[Raichik] won't be canceled from her job because this *is* her job now. I've worked out a deal with her that will turn her heroic, high-risk work into a career." Dillon registered Libs of TikTok LLC in December 2021. Raichik tweeted a photo of her and Dillon together around this time (albeit with her face blacked out).
===Elon Musk===
In September 2022, after the Libs of TikTok account was temporarily suspended from Twitter, Dillon announced that Raichik would sue Twitter if the suspension was permanent. The official Babylon Bee Twitter account had been suspended for misgendering U.S. assistant health secretary in March 2022.Rebecca Klar, "Twitter suspends Babylon Bee for misgendering Rachel Levine", The Hill, 21 March 2022 According to Dillon, Elon Musk personally reached out to him to confirm the Bee's suspension, reportedly musing that "he might need to buy Twitter."Patrick McHale, "Elon Musk Opined About Buying Twitter After Babylon Bee Ban", Bloomberg, 5 April 2022 Musk actually offered to purchase Twitter for $44 billion soon thereafter, seemingly so that Dillon could keep making transphobic jokes.Musk also hates trans people, including, it seems, his own daughter.
In December 2022, two months into his farcical, fortune-obliterating acquisition of Twitter, Musk released the " through "left-leaning centrist" journalist The exposé purportedly revealed that Libs of TikTok, along with other conservative-aligned accounts, was subjected to selective policy enforcement and shadowbanning prior to Musk's takeover."Twitter had 'secret blacklists' to limit users, journalist claims", Al Jazeera, 9 December 2022 Instead, the "Twitter Files" revealed that LoTT received preferential treatment, with moderators being explicitly directed not to take action against the account, but rather to elevate concerns to the highest level of management. This seemingly confirms reports that Twitter took a light-touch approach to enforcing its policies against anti-LGBT hate speech during the interim between Musk's bid and acquisition.
Musk's brave new Freeze Peach regime at Twitter has predictably been a disaster. He purposely reinstated scores of accounts previously suspended for hateful conduct (bringing back The Babylon Bee was reportedly his top priority)Azmi Haroun, "Elon Musk wanted to reinstate a right-wing satire account on day one as Twitter chief", Business Insider, 22 November 2022 while suspending journalists for purely retaliatory reasons.In some cases, Musk seems to have brought the banhammer down on strictly ideological grounds, as in the targeted suspensions of anti-fascist researcher Chad Loder and an anti-fascist, pro-LGBT gun club in late November 2022. An internal memo leaked in January 2023 confirmed that Loder was banned at Musk's personal direction. Trans Berkeley professor Grace Lavery curiously only had her account reinstated months after Musk welcomed back the likes of Andrew Anglin. Lavery was suspended in February 2022 after being mass-reported by TERFs for a flippant tweet. At the time, Lavery was planning to visit the UK to promote her memoir and debate anti-trans writer Helen Joyce, which lead to a wave of online harassment against Lavery and her mother. When one Twitter transphobe suggested that Lavery be barred from entering the UK despite being a British citizen, alleging she intended to "incite public order offences" on her book tour, Lavery sarcastically replied "oh I hope the queen dies also." Even if one accepts this joke was in poor taste, given Queen Elizabeth II's failing health at the time, the double standard is glaring. This included temporarily suspending Taylor Lorenz for the "prior doxxing action" of writing the WaPo article about LoTT's identity in April.Solcyre Burga, "Twitter Temporarily Bans Washington Post Reporter After Other Journalists Reinstated", Time, 18 December 2022 Twitter's content moderation system has been gutted by Musk's mass staff layoffs.Vittoria Elliot and Chris Stokel-Walker, "Twitter’s Moderation System Is in Tatters", Wired, 17 November 2022 He has reportedly ordered a "review" of Twitter's policy against deadnaming and misgendering trans people.Samantha Riedel, "Elon Musk Might Revisit Twitter’s Anti-Trans Hate Policy", Them, 2 November 2022 Hate speech has surged on Twitter under these conditions.Oliver Dracy, "Hate speech dramatically surges on Twitter following Elon Musk takeover, new research shows", CNN, 2 December 2022 Musk, unsurprisingly, has been buddying up to Libs of TikTok, and has liked her tweets.Chantelle Billson, "Elon Musk spends dying days of Twitter joking with anti-LGBTQ+ account Libs of TikTok", Pink News, 18 November 2022Bevan Hurley, "Elon Musk, who has a trans daughter, likes anti-trans tweet from notorious right wing account", The Independent, 27 December 2022
===DeSantis administration===
Libs of TikTok has cultivated ties with Florida governor Ron DeSantis and his hardline anti-LGBT administration. According to a Media Matters report, Raichik interacted with DeSantis' press secretary, over 130 times on Twitter between June 2021 and April 2022.Kayla Gogarty, "Anti-LGBTQ Twitter account 'Libs of TikTok' seemingly inspired attacks from Florida governor’s press secretary", Media Matters, 14 April 2022Lily Wakefield, "Libs of TikTok credited with inspiring hateful 'Don’t Say Gay' law and 'grooming' rhetoric", Pink News, 21 April 2022 During this time, Pushaw mentioned Libs of TikTok in 97 tweets, and Raichik mentioned Pushaw in 41 tweets. Pushaw has praised LoTT as "one of the best accounts" on Twitter and has credited LoTT with having "truly opened [her] eyes" on LGBT issues.
Pushaw has directly plied LoTT for more information on Florida-based educators she has targeted, with the seeming intent of enforcing the " a 2022 state law banning instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation for K-3 students. On March 4, 2022, weeks before the law went into effect, Pushaw tweeted her objection to the "Don't Say Gay" moniker that "liberals" have "inaccurately" attached to it, insisting it "would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill." Raichik endorsed the "Don't Say Gay" bill as "literally genius" for having made "all the creeps come out and identify themselves as pro-grooming" on March 10.
In December 2022, Raichik revealed that after her identity was disclosed by the Washington Post, DeSantis had someone reach out to her offering to allow her to "come and stay as long as [she] need[s]" in his if she wanted "a place to go, to hide, to stay."Loren Cecil, "Libs of TikTok Creator Chaya Raichik Called Ron DeSantis 'Incredible' For Offering Her Refuge in Florida Governor’s Mansion", BuzzFeed News, 27 December 2022Areeba Shah, "Ron DeSantis offered Libs of TikTok creator his home 'to hide' after her identity was revealed", Salon, 28 December 2022 She apparently declined the offer but expressed that she was "almost in tears" that DeSantis had taken time out of his "extremely busy schedule" to have someone "call [her] to make sure [she was] safe."
DeSantis cooled on Raichik in March 2024 when she made a Tweet incorrectly stating that Florida provides drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants. For a governor well known for attention-seeking stunts, DeSantis ironically chided Raichik for the same, stating that "truth shouldn't be a casualty of attempts to generate clicks and engagement farm.""DeSantis Accuses Libs of TikTok of Spreading Lies For ‘Clicks’" by Josh Fiallo, Daily Beast, 2024 March 13
===The Grand Old Party===
Donald Trump, DeSantis's chief rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, invited Raichik and Seth Dillon to dine with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in January 2023.Summer Concepcion and Marc Caputo, "Trump hosts conservative influencers behind Libs of TikTok and Babylon Bee for dinner", NBC News, 25 January 2023Christopher Wiggins, "Libs of TikTok's Chaya Raichik & Trump Met at Mar-a-Lago", The Advocate, 26 January 2023 Raichik shared a photo of her and Trump giving the thumps-up sign and added in a second tweet that she had asked Trump if his "first tweet back [since his Twitter reinstatement] can be retweeting this".
Raichik spoke (or at least tried) to a mostly-empty room on the first day of the (CPAC) in March 2023.Christopher Wiggins, "Anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok Creator Chaya Raichik Does Bizarre CPAC Talk", The Advocate, 2 March 2023Amelia Hansford, "Anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik just gave a talk to a very empty room", PinkNews, 3 March 2023 The panel discussion was dedicated to mocking openly gay journalist and included fellow D-list conservative celebs and Kurt Schlichter. It included a bizarre skit in which Bozell claimed, "If I ever transition, I want to be Chaya," prompting O'Connor to give him a wad of cash in an apparent lost bet. Raichik, whose reaction was described as "befuddled," repeatedly asked for clarification, but the men ignored her.
===Shopify===
Raichik operates a store hawking Libs of TikTok junk through Ottawa-based e-commerce platform Joseph Tunney, "Shopify won't cut ties with controversial Libs of TikTok", CBC, 25 November 2022 Shopify has refused to remove LoTT's store from its service despite having policies banning hateful content.Kyle Barr, "Shopify Tells Employees to Ignore Complaints That It's Platforming Anti-LGBT Hate Group", Yahoo News, 6 December 2022 The company has gone as far as directing customer-service employees to ignore complaints about LoTT. The site's founder, German cryptobro Tobi Lütke is on the board of directors of crypto exchange His Wikipedia biography currently fails to note this for some reason. has reportedly blocked anyone who asks him about LoTT on Twitter.
==In summary==
==External links==
*Webshite
*Twitter account
*Instagram account
*Youtube channel
*Libs of TikTok and its dark influence on LGBTQ+ hate: A complete history of the most infamous anti-LGBTQ+ social media account of all time.
*Trans Data Library on Chaya Raichik
==Notes==
==References==
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