Hate influencer Chaya Raichik celebrates allegedly inspiring bomb threats with sneering photo

Chaya Raichik, the former Brooklyn real estate agent turned anti-LGBTQ+ activist behind the LibsofTikTok social media accounts, celebrated a USA Today exposé linking her posts to incidents of harassment and even bomb threats at schools, libraries, and hospitals.

On Monday, the Libs of TikTok X account posted a photo of a smiling Raichik proudly holding up the front page of yesterday’s USA Today featuring the above-the-fold headline, “When Libs of TikTok posts, threats increasingly follow.” Responding to a comment from X owner Elon Musk offering his congratulations, Raichik described the story as a “huge achievement,” thanking the billionaire for “continuing to protect free speech” on the platform formerly known as Twitter.  

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Hate influencer Chaya Raichik outraged that people are calling her out for inspiring bomb threats

She justified her rhetoric by saying that bomb threats aren’t as dangerous as drag queens and gender-affirming care.

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First published online last week, the USA Today story is one of several recent media reports that have shown a correlation between Libs of TikTok’s anti-LGBTQ+ posts and incidents of threats and harassment aimed at the specific hospitals, schools, libraries, and individuals the account targets.

Media Matters has documented 33 instances of threats and harassment directed at 25 different institutions after LibsofTikTok targeted them between February 2022 and October 2023. USA Today confirmed “dozens” of bomb threats, death threats, and other forms of harassment that followed the account’s posts since February 2022, including at least two dozen bomb threats directed at schools and libraries during the summer and fall of 2023 alone. USA Today noted that the research likely undercounts the total number of threats, as some may have gone unreported.

Last month, both Vice and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) published similar reports of bomb threats against schools and libraries following Raichik’s social media posts.

Raichik told USA Today that she opposes violence and argued that because there have been few arrests connected with these threats, there is no proof that they were made by her followers.

After the USA Today story was posted online last Thursday, Raichik posted a video to her personal X account railing against the “left-wing media.” She falsely claimed that she had been called “dangerous,” “violent,” and “a terrorist” in the reports and repeated anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation about drag performers and gender-affirming care, describing both as “dangerous and violent.”

By Monday, however, rather than taking evidence suggesting that her posts may be inspiring disruptive threats of violence and harassment seriously, Raichik seemed to be reveling in the publicity. She has made the photo of herself with the copy of USA Today her avatar on her personal X account. After anti-LGBTQ+ activist and failed congressional candidate Robby Starbuck commented that she should frame the newspaper, Libs of TikTok responded, “I will!”