Who is behind Donald Trump-endorsed Libs of TikTok? ‘Master hater’ Chaya Raichik just allegedly prompted 50-plus bomb threats on US gym chain Planet Fitness over its trans-inclusive politics
- The backlash started with the Libs of TikTok posting of a video of a woman saying that there was ‘a man shaving in a women’s bathroom’ at her Planet Fitness location in Alaska
- Libs of TikTok, aka Chaya Raichik, has mastered the art of being a hater on the internet, wrote the kids’ book No More Secrets: The Candy Cavern and is on an Oklahoma library media advisory committee
At least 43 gyms in the Planet Fitness chain across the US received bomb threats after a right-wing social media influencer posted transphobic comments about its rules, reported the The Guardian on April 13. “The backlash started with the posting on X [of] a video of a woman saying that there was ‘a man shaving in a women’s bathroom’ at her Planet Fitness location in Fairbanks, Alaska,” the report stated.
As of April 24, this number had risen to 53, media watchdog group Media Matters reported, adding that this ongoing campaign against Planet Fitness, by the X account Libs of TikTok, demands “a boycott in retaliation for the gym’s trans-inclusive locker room policy”. Media Matters has also noted a trend of violent threats against various institutions targeted by the account.
Then the face behind the account was exposed – her real identity finally revealed after an article explained who she was and the social media handles she had used. It’s fair to say that the person behind the pseudonym, Chaya Raichik, has mastered the art of being a hater on the internet.
Here is everything you need to know about Raichik, aka Libs of TikTok.
Who is Chaya Raichik?
Raichik is a Los Angeles-born 29-year-old who was raised in an orthodox Jewish home and went to an all-girls Jewish school.
Before she transitioned into a full time content creator, Raichik had a career selling property in New York. She now has celebrity status because of the impact her social media accounts have had on the national dialogue about the LGBTQ+ community.
Per The Washington Post in April 2022, software developer Travis Brown revealed the X accounts previously used by Raichik until late February 2021 – after Raichik had been hurling hate towards the LGBTQ+ community while hiding behind online anonymity for months. The X accounts could be clearly linked to Raichik as her name was found on the libsoftiktok.us domain registration, per the article.