Taylor Lorenz, a tech columnist for the Washington Post, has once again taken aim at the “Libs” of TikTok, this time blaming them for an increase in hate speech directed towards children’s hospitals.
Lorenz, Elizabeth Dwoskin, and Peter Jamison wrote: “Children’s hospitals around the United States are experiencing increased threats of violence, spurred by an online anti-LGBTQ campaign assaulting the facilities for giving care to transgender kids and teens.” Twitter “has left up the account inspiring the attacks,” despite warnings raised by staff in internal Slack channels that “it’s only a matter of time” until the messages lead to someone’s death.
The article continued its extensive condemnation of the account, calling Libs of TikTok an anti-LGBTQ website that “baselessly accused” instructors of being pedophiles and “groomers.” Lorenz had already identified the user and linked the person’s tweets regarding four hospitals to the online harassment and phone threats that those facilities had received.
Even though the post included a message from the account holder condemning any and all acts of violence, Lorenz and her coworkers stated Libs of TikTok did not react to a question about if it felt responsible for the threats.
