Libs of TikTok is having a meltdown over being classified as an extremist account

Chaya Raichik, founder of the anti-LGBTQ+ social media account Libs of TikTok, has built a career on raging over something. Usually, that something is queer people living their lives, whose content she regularly reposts with incendiary commentary. But Raichik’s latest target is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) after the nonprofit included her in their Glossary of Extremism. Once, Raichik wore the badge of “stochastic terrorist” in proud irony—now, she seems to have realized what a terrible look that is.

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” Raichik wrote on X. “I’m calling on the [ADL] to immediately remove my name from their ‘Glossary of Extremism.’

“Not only have they defamed me, they also lumped me in with terrorist organizations like Hamas. They have until Oct 31st to remove this defamatory entry before I’m forced to take more action.” At this time, it is unclear what “more action” entails.

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The ADL’s Glossary of Extremism was launched in March 2022 as “a first-of-its-kind interactive and searchable database providing comprehensive definitions of commonly known and more obscure terms employed by a variety of groups and movements across the extremism landscape.”

The entry on Raichik describes Libs of TikTok as “anti-LGBTQ+ twitter account” that “attempts to generate outrage and stoke anti-LGBTQ+ hostility by reposting selected out-of-context social media content created by LGBTQ+ people and liberals. The individuals, events and organizations targeted by the account are frequent targets of harassment, threats and violence.”

The Libs of TikTok harassment pipeline is a familiar story by this time. Making unfounded claims of grooming or child mutilation, Raichik will post about, say, a trans homecoming queen, or a gay government employee, or hospital providing gender affirming care. When something like a bomb threat follows, Raichik disowns it, claiming that she is just giving her opinion and is not responsible for the actions of others.

This plausible deniability is essentially the definition of stochastic terrorism. Speaking to The Advocate, former Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary Juliette Kayyem laid out how Libs of TikTok embodies stochastic terrorism.

“Of course, with Libs of TikTok, it’s the use of incredible claims — children are being mutilated, forced to become girls against their will — that’ll be heard by some percentage of those people as a justification for violence,” Kayyem said.

“They don’t have to say, and they never do say attack this hospital or that hospital,” she added. “It’s an incitement about a process or a procedure that’s going on that would justify anyone who cares about children, of course, to go try to bomb a facility.”

In the past, Raichik claimed that the term stochastic terrorism (which dates back to around 2011) was invented to describe her.

At first, she seemed proud of this idea, displaying the phrase “stochastic terrorist” in her social media bio. After the mall shooting in Allen, Texas (perpetrated by a known Libs of TikTok follower), Raichik quietly removed the term.

Now no longer content to be ironically proud of being labeled a terrorist, she is openly outraged at being labeled an extremist—or at least, is willing to perform outrage for her followers. Because if there’s one thing plausible deniability can’t abide, it’s calling a spade a spade.