Chaya Raichik, the founder of the social media account @LibsofTikTok,
has just been added to the SPLC's Extremist Files.
Friend,
Anti-LGBTQ extremist Chaya Raichik, the founder of the social media account @LibsofTikTok, has just been added to the SPLC's Extremist Files.
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Raichik uses her platform to promote an anti-LGBTQ+ disinformation campaign that mobilizes right-wing extremist groups in violent attacks against LGBTQ+ people, spaces and events, as well as against doctors, hospitals, librarians, libraries, teachers and schools.
FIRST: In 2021, Raichik began using her anonymous Twitter (X) account
@LibsofTikTok - which originally focused on COVID-19 and 2020 election conspiracies - to capitalize on the right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ "groomer" moral panic and share content that accuses LGBTQ+ people of harming children. Raichik often used the "groomer" slur, which
implies that all LGBTQ+ people are pedophiles.
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THEN: In December 2022, Raichik appeared for the first time on camera with Tucker Carlson. On an episode of Carlson's Fox Nation program, Raichik compared LGBTQ+ identity to a cult and pushed false claims about transgender people. Raichik also explained her intent to conduct in-person activities. Donald Trump praised Raichik's book and other work, saying she is "exposing sick people who are coming after our kids."
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Raichik posted contact information for teachers and principals, called on "any teacher who comes out to their students" to be "fired on the spot," and regularly tags social media accounts of local schools to encourage them to remove LGBTQ+ books from their classrooms and libraries.
NOW: Raichik's online disinformation campaign has been associated with in-person violence. Her false claims about hospitals and about LGBTQ+ people "grooming" children
have mobilized white supremacist, anti-LGBTQ+ and other extremist groups to
pursue in-person attacks. The Washington Post reported Twitter employees even feared "that it's 'only a matter of time' before the posts lead to someone getting killed."
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Along with threats to children's physical safety - including bomb threats to children's hospitals - the disinformation campaign led some hospitals and clinics to suspend care or remove vital information from their websites, which jeopardizes the lives of LGBTQ+ people.
Tracking and exposing hatemongers like Raichik has been central to the SPLC's mission since our founding. Threats of violence, especially against children, are particularly abhorrent. By adding Raichik to our Extremist Files, we can set the record straight and lay bare the consequences of her hateful disinformation campaigns.
Will you make a special gift to the SPLC today to support us as we continue to monitor and combat extremists and hate leaders?
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Donate Now
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You know as well as we do that massive hate and disinformation campaigns targeting LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities and Black and Brown people are consequences of the far right's rising mainstream power. But we can't - and we won't - allow them spew hate without consequences. Thank you for being one of many goodhearted people willing to stand up for justice and equity for all.
Sincerely,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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