Pressure mounts on right-wing account Libs of TikTok after Anti-Defamation League caves to threats

Is Libs of TikTok a hate group? Controversy is swirling around the right-wing social media account after its founder, Chaya Raichik, pressured the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) into removing Libs of TikTok from its Glossary of Extremism.

Despite what its name might suggest, Libs of TikTok has accumulated its biggest following on X, where it reaches 2.6 million followers. The account brings attention to schools, hospitals, and other entities that support gender-affirming care for young people. Institutions that find themselves in Raichik’s crosshairs are often brigaded with negative feedback and threats. The account’s connection to hateful actions has led to temporary sanctions on platforms like Facebook and a permanent suspension on TikTok.

Raichik ran Libs of TikTok anonymously until her identity was revealed in a Washington Post report in 2022. Since then, the Brooklyn real estate agent has publicly disputed the suggestion that she runs an extremist account. She threatened to take legal action against the ADL if the organization kept Libs of TikTok in its Glossary. The ADL caved within a few days.

In the wake of that change, other organizations are attempting to hold Raichik accountable for her inflammatory posts. An exhaustive report published by Media Matters catalogs all of the bomb and death threats that have targeted the institutions featured on Libs of TikTok. In September 2023 alone, ten separate schools received threats after Raichik mentioned them in posts.

“There’s so many events like this where Raichik flags something about the LGBTQ+ community or the trans community and then threats of violence follow,” said Michael Edison Hayden, an investigative journalist with the Southern Poverty Law Center, in an interview with the New Abnormal podcast. Hayden expressed disappointment over the ADL’s capitulation. “It really lets a lot of LGBTQIA people down,” he said.

The links between Libs of TikTok posts and instances of targeted hate speech may seem clear, but at least one person doesn’t think so: Raichik herself. In an interview with USA Today, she described herself as more of an aggregator than an agitator. “If an individual posts publicly on TikTok, the goal of TikTok is to get views,” she said. “That’s why people post on TikTok – they want to become famous, they want clicks, views.”

Calls for Raichik’s deplatforming will surely continue, but Libs of TikTok’s critics shouldn’t expect it to abandon its primary home. X leader Elon Musk has boosted the account in the past, and he has not indicated that he plans to take any punitive action against it.