Conservatives complain of 'doxxing' after exposé reveals woman behind 'Libs of TikTok' account
Conservatives accused journalist Taylor Lorenz of "harassment" and "doxxing" — revealing someone's identity online with malicious intent — after her article revealing the identity of the woman behind the popular "Libs of TikTok" social media account was published in The Washington Post on Tuesday.
Libs of TikTok, a right-wing Twitter account created in April 2021, shares content in which users of the popular video app discuss topics like gender identity. According to Lorenz, the account's posts often include "incendiary framing designed to generate outrage," and several teachers have reportedly been fired after being featured on the account. Libs of TikTok has over 674,000 followers and has been amplified by prominent figures like Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson.
When Lorenz revealed that the woman behind the account was a former real estate investor named Chaya Raichik, conservatives responded by accusing Lorenz of harassing Raichik and her family, though the accusations appear to simply refer to standard reporting practices.
Hi @TaylorLorenz! Which of my relatives did you enjoy harassing the most at their homes yesterday? pic.twitter.com/QehkBSgcmG
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) April 19, 2022
Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance wrote that Lorenz's article is "evidence that the purpose of the corporate media is industrial scale harassment."
Taylor Lorenz is a terrible journalist and worse human. Targeting a Twitter account that literally just posts Leftists owning themselves because that account damages the Left is pure Lorenz.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 19, 2022
Bezos's mouthpiece (the Washington Post) doxxing Libs of Tik Tok is further evidence that the purpose of the corporate media is industrial scale harassment.
Time for defamation reform for the media, and to break up their Big Tech enablers.— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 19, 2022
Others accused Lorenz of hypocrisy. Journalist Avi Yemini tweeted that just a few weeks ago, Lorenz was a "crying victim of 'harrassment'" but has now "tracked down and harassed" Raichik's family members. Lorenz has been attacked by prominent figures like Carlson.
This was Taylor Lorenz a couple of weeks ago.
She was crying victim of "harassment”.
Today she tracked down and harassed family members of the @libsoftiktok account for an article she’s working on.
It turns out Taylor’s the perpetrator, not victim.pic.twitter.com/CifXGvASCV— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) April 19, 2022
Earlier this month, Lorenz said on MSNBC's Meet the Press Daily that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder due to online harassment. "You feel like any little piece of information that gets out on you will be used by the worst people on the internet to destroy your life," she said.
Lorenz was not without defenders, though. Podcast host Alex Goldman tweeted that "[r]eporting the name of someone who already has a public profile and also uses a twitter account to sic hordes of trolls on other people is not doxing. It's reporting." Lorenz retweeted his post.
Reporting the name of someone who already has a public profile and also uses a twitter account to sic hordes of trolls on other people is not doxing. It’s reporting. It’s like the most basic building block of reporting.
— Alex Goldman (@AGoldmund) April 19, 2022
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