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Libs of TikTok's anti-LGBTQ+ posts linked to threats against schools, hospitals and drag shows [1]
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Date: 2023-11-03
Dozens of bomb threats, death threats, and other forms of harassment have targeted schools, hospitals, libraries and Pride events, especially drag shows, shortly after posts appeared on the virulently anti-LGBTQ+ social media account Libs of TikTok. The progressive analysis group Media Matters for America conducted research that documented “25 institutions, events and individuals who reported threats in the days after being targeted by Libs of TikTok, and another 8 who reported harassment—a total of at least 33 instances of threats or harassment.”
Media Matters on Thursday published a timeline of threats and harassment seemingly sparked by Libs of TikTok posts.
RELATED STORY: Oklahoma schools official amplifies Libs of TikTok, bomb threats ensue
Here are several of them:
LoTT targeted a drag queen story hour event in San Lorenzo, California; the event was stormed. The event was stormed by men believed to be members of the Proud Boys, who issued threats to patrons. [MMFA, 6/13/22.]
LoTT targeted Denver Public Schools; the district received bomb threats. The tweet garnered over 40,000 interactions. Vice reported that the district “received several threats the following day from someone claiming they’d placed a bomb in three of the 12 schools in the district.” [Twitter/X, 9/24/23; Vice, 10/4/23]
LoTT targeted Boston Children’s Hospital; the hospital received violent threats. Following posts about Boston Children's Hospital, members of far-right online forums suggested people “start executing these ‘doctors.’” From August 30, 2022, to November 16, 2022, Boston Children's Hospital reportedly received three bomb threats, including one in which the caller cited the hospital's gender-affirming care program. The threats were deemed credible by the FBI and later resulted in an arrest and a guilty plea. [Facebook, 8/11/22; Twitter/X, 8/16/22; Media Matters, 8/18/22; Vice, 8/17/22; NBC Boston, 9/28/23; Boston.com, 8/16/22; The Boston Globe, 11/16/22]
LoTT and other right-wing figures targeted a public library in Davis, California; the library received a bomb threat. The tweet garnered over 30,000 interactions. The library was targeted with a bomb threat and harassment. [Twitter/X, 8/21/23; MMFA, 8/23/23]
In an investigative report published Thursday, USA TODAY interviewed Chaya Raichik, a former real estate agent from Brooklyn who created the Twitter account in November 2020. She changed its handle to Libs of TikTok in April 2021. Raichik has since become a major far-right influencer. USA TODAY reported that the account, with its anti-woke conservative culture war agenda, now has more than 2.6 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Its posts are regularly picked up by Fox News and other conservative media outlets. The newspaper added that on X, the account has been “has been amplified by the platform’s owner Elon Musk.”
Raichik told USA TODAY she created the account to raise awareness about what she considered “a clear pattern of the sexualization of children going on in public schools” and elsewhere in America, which she viewed as “super harmful.” She added that she opposes violence and there is no proof that the threats have come from her followers. That’s because the perpetrators of the threats remain unknown and almost no arrests have been made.
Based on Media Matters research, USA Today wrote that “whoever is making the threats, the posts show a clear pattern.” USA TODAY has confirmed dozens of bomb threats, death threats, and other harassment after Libs of TikTok posts since February 2022.
USA TODAY wrote:
Numerous news reports have covered individual threats, noting the target had also been mentioned by Libs of TikTok. But the new analysis of years of tweets, including archives of many Raichik has since deleted, shows the pattern is more extensive and pervasive than has been previously known – and that threats, specifically against schools, have ratcheted up significantly in the past two months. Media Matters used searches of published news reports to help identify more than 30 possible threat incidents. USA TODAY verified bomb, death and other threats in more than two dozen cases. The research most likely undercounts the total number of cases. Other threats may never be reported to police or the media, and some targets are reluctant to publicize their plight for fear of drawing even more harassment. ... Hospitals have been evacuated; schools and libraries have cleared classrooms and canceled lessons while police officers search for bombs. Bookstores, Pride parades, cafes, even a dog rescue center, have had to lock down for fear of reprisals — and violence.
Media Matters’ LBGTQ+ Program Director Ari Drennen told USA TODAY: “We can only insulate ourselves from what’s happening on social media for so long. In a country where so many people have the ability to take things into their own hands, that’s a very real worry.”
Libs of TikTok regularly shares TikTok and Instagram videos recorded by leftist progressives, accompanied by Raichik’s own derisive comments. It also shares videos and posts from other far-right accounts, which are often inaccurate and hateful.
Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic, told USA TODAY that once Raichik posts something “it just gets amplified to an order of magnitude larger audience. Any tweet she puts out gets—instantly—millions of views and potentially tens of thousands of retweets and likes. So it gets wide dissemination.”
Raichik has made individual doctors and medical facilities providing care to LBGTQ+ patients, including minors, a particular target. Media Matters reported that on March 16, 2022, Libs of TikTok targeted Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, part of the Oregon Health and Science University’s health system, in a Twitter post for providing gender-affirming care to young people. Replies to the post included comments calling the doctors “perverted demons.” The hospital and its staff soon reported receiving harassment and threats.
“Most of these messages cited social media posts that contained inaccurate or misleading information about life-saving and medically necessary care for gender-diverse patients,” read a hospital statement provided to USA TODAY. “OHSU and its staff continue to be subjected to anti-transgender harassment today.”
After Libs of TikTok repeatedly targeted Boston Children’s Hospital in August 2022 for its gender-affirming program, the hospital reported receiving a heavy volume of hostile internet activity, phone calls, and harassing emails, including threats of violence toward doctors and staff members. The local U.S. attorney announced an investigation into the threats, and in September federal agents arrested 37-year-old Catherine Leavy, who pleaded guilty to making a false bomb threat against the hospital.
Vice News reported that in September at least 11 schools or school districts that were targeted by Libs of TikTok over anti-LGBTQ+ grooming conspiracies received bomb threats just days later.
In response to a question about the pattern of harassment that follows her social media posts, Raichik told USA TODAY that she’s merely reposting what institutions and individuals have already put out on social media. “If an individual posts publicly on TikTok, the goal of TikTok is to get views,” Raichik told USA TODAY. “That's why people post on TikTok—they want to become famous, they want clicks, views.”
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