Jess Piper is putting out a warning to Ohio parents: “Chaya Raichik with the Libs of TikTok is coming for your schools.”
Piper, Executive Director for Blue Missouri, recently contextualized an August 26 tweet from Raichik reading: “I’m looking for parents anywhere in Ohio who have kids in public schools to be eyes and ears on the ground. Your identity will remain anonymous and protected. Please dm me if you fit this criteria.”
In isolation, this call for eyes and ears is fairly neutral if somewhat ominous (what is happening in Ohio that requires anonymous monitoring?). But in context, this social media cattle call is deeply troubling.
“This woman and her group are already listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center,” Piper claims [writer’s note: more on that in a minute] before continuing, “[but] they are still allowed to operate and terrorize students, teachers, and parents … She is doing the dirty work for wealthy people who want to privatize public schools. And unfortunately Ohio is drawing their focus.
For those unfamiliar with Raichik, Libs of TikTok, here’s background info that might be helpful…
Who is Chaya Raichik?
Chaya Raichik is a 29-year-old former real estate agent who runs the account Libs of TikTok (ironically, no longer on TikTok). She was raised in Los Angeles and lived in Brooklyn where she worked as a real estate agent. Around 2020, the Washington Post reports, she began what would become a prolific social media presence, focusing on right wing “culture wars” issues such as Covid denialism, claims of 2020 election fraud, and Q-Anon conspiracy theories revolving around child sex trafficking. She claims to have been present at the Stop the Steal rally on January 6. Though she attempted to influence online discourse through multiple accounts, it wasn’t until Libs of TikTok was promoted by podcaster Joe Rogan that Raichik found success as a right wing media darling.
What is Libs of TikTok?
Libs of TikTok is Raichik’s multi-platform account that continues to embroil itself on the issues she first began posting about in 2020, but has put more emphasis on spreading anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theories, accusing queer people of being “groomers” (though she has more recently shied from the term) and fighting against trans rights, often by spreading false information and conspiracy theories under the guise of “protecting children.” In sharing content from largely queer creators, often edited and almost always without context, she seeks to foment anger towards queer people and communities.
Through Libs of TikTok, Raichik has been embraced by right-wing members of the media (such as Rogan, Tucker Carlson, and Jason Rantz, among others) as well as far-right politicians and political entities. Raichik has worked with the Heritage Foundation and appeared with Donald Trump, Indiana Congressman Jim Banks, and was even appointed to Oklahoma’s Library Media Advisory Committee by state superintendent Ryan Walters (despite not actually living in the state) where she has sought to pull books on sex education as well as those depicting gay and trans people from public school libraries deriding the content as porn. (Incidentally, both Raichik and Ryan have cheered on the dissolution of the Department of Education.)
While TikTok has banned the account, it still exists on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
The Southern Poverty Law Center lists her as an “extremist” linked to threats of violence
So, note quite a domestic terror group (considering she’s only one person this makes sense), but the SPLC highlights the harms she has committed against children, LGBTQ+ people, doctors, hospitals, librarians, libraries, teachers, and schools.
While Raichik denies any connection between her content and violent threats, a slew of bomb threats against specific schools and children’s hospitals who provide gender affirming care have followed her denouncing those same institutions on her platform. Others, including at least one school board member in Wisconsin, have claimed infamy on Libs of TikTok has prompted death threats.
Raichik’s profile picture on Twitter as of press time is one of her beaming as she holds a copy of USA Today with the front page headline “When Libs of TikTok posts, threats increasingly follow.”
