Who has the right to be anonymous? | New Statesman
By Emily Tamkin on April 19, 2022
WASHINGTON â On Tuesday (19 April) the Washington Post journalist Taylor Lorenz published an article that confirmed the name of the woman behind the Twitter account Libs of TikTok. I say âconfirmedâ not to undermine Lorenzâs reporting, but because the woman, Chaya Raichik, appears to have registered the domain name libsoftiktok.us under her own full name.
Libs of TikTok, for those who are unfamiliar with or perhaps smartly less online than some, is an account with more than half a million followers that mockingly posts clips of liberals and LGBTQ+ people, as well as memes and tweets attacking transgender people. As Lorenzâs piece notes, âHer anti-trans tweets went especially viral. She called on her followers to contact schools that were allowing âboys in the girls bathroomsâ. She also purported that adults who teach children about LGBTQ+ identities are âabusive,â that being gender-nonconforming or an ally to the LGBTQ+ community is a âmental illness,â and referred to schools as âgovernment run indoctrination campsâ for the LGBTQ+ community. Raichikâs posts have made it onto Fox News, a station into which Raichik herself has (anonymously) called into in the past.â
