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| Chaya Raichik isn't smiling after the recent USA Today article about Libs of TikTok |
The USA Today just posted a very good expose on Libs of TikTok and its founder Chaya Raichik. And Raichik isn't happy about it.
It deserves a full read, but allow me to post some excerpts:
. . . USA TODAY has confirmed dozens of bomb threats, death threats and other harassment after Libs of TikTok’s posts since February 2022, based on exclusive new research from the progressive analysis group Media Matters for America. 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.
. . .Asked for her reaction to the established pattern of harassment that follows her tweets, Raichik has a simple — and standard — response: She’s merely re-posting what institutions and individuals have already, themselves, chosen to put out to the world on social media, she says.
“If an individual posts publicly on TikTok, the goal of TikTok is to get views,” Raichik said. “That's why people post on TikTok — they want to become famous, they want clicks, views.”
But Raichik doesn’t just re-post other people’s content. First, her posts almost always include some kind of commentary. One in October, for example, featured an Instagram video of a New York music teacher, joyfully waving a Progress Pride flag while the message “Happy National Coming Out Day — Black, Gay and Thriving” appears at the bottom of the screen. “An actual elementary school teacher in NY,” reads Raichik’s comment on the video.
. . . Other posts either directly or indirectly encourage Libs of TikTok’s followers to contact the original poster directly. In a post last April for example, Raichik sarcastically told her followers “definitely do not keep up the pressure” on a school district in Oregon that supported transgender students using their chosen pronouns. Asked about that post, she acknowledged it was a call to action, but only to “tag” or mention the account on social media. “I’ve done that a couple times, where I told people to tag accounts on Twitter,” she said. “That is nowhere near telling people to call in bomb threats.”
Libs of TikTok also doesn’t post solely public material.
Posts regularly include clandestine photos and videos that have been sent to Raichik or her network, presumably without the permission of a hospital, school clinic or library.
And some of the material she posts is doctored or fake – something Raichik acknowledged in her interview with USA TODAY. In April 2022, she reposted photographs and claims purporting to show an elementary school teaching children about a lifestyle some people believed depicts a fetish for animal costumes. The original post was an easily debunked hoax, and Raichik later deleted her tweet.
Raichik took to Twitter to whine about the possibility getting harassment and threat because of the article.
The irony is both sad and delicious. Raichik complains that an article which simply details her exploits could make her the victim of harassment and threats. Meanwhile her deliberate targeting of schools, hospitals, and individuals has been linked to genuine harassment and bomb threats. And when asked about these incidents, Raichik implies that she is merely posting the exploits of her targets.
GURL HUSH.
Granted, I don't support bomb threats, or any type of threats and I hope that Raichik doesn't receive any because of the article. But then again, I don't weep for the vindictive snake which gets a taste of the venom she spits at others.
