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In today’s GOP, social media trolls are being put in charge.
On Tuesday, Oklahoma's superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters, announced he was appointing right-wing social media influencer Chaya Raichik — best known for her controversial Libs of TikTok social media accounts — to an advisory role on the state's Library Media Advisory Committee. That will allow her to help determine which books are appropriate for Oklahoma school libraries.
Raichik's social media accounts are known for targeting liberals, LGBTQ people and teachers. Often, she uses incendiary claims and conspiracy theories to suggest without evidence that members of these groups engage in the indoctrination or sexual exploitation of children. And both Raichik and Walters have been accused of stoking bomb threats toward people and places featured in Raichik's videos: Walters has faced calls to resign over claims that he helped incite bomb threats toward a librarian when he reshared an edited Libs of TikTok video. That video also led to bomb threats against his home; Walters called such threats "reprehensible and unacceptable," according to KOCO News, and said they were being investigated. Raichik, meanwhile, has been accused of inciting threats against hospitals and schools.
Raichik has said she has "denounced violence" and claimed there's no proof that the threats came from her followers, but she also appeared to relish a USA Today story that linked her posts to reports of bomb threats, announcing she'd hang it framed in her office.
Walters chose Raichik — despite her not being an Oklahoma resident — to join his Public Education Department, which is already working with the right-wing media outlet PragerU to provide resources to the state's schoolchildren. (If you want to get a sense of what those are like, NBC News reports that in one animated lesson featuring time-traveling kids, "the abolitionist Frederick Douglass defends the Founding Fathers for not outlawing slavery.")
Raichik’s growing influence is a reminder that today’s Trumpian GOP is obsessed with social media trolls, precisely because of the anguish they can inflict on conservatives’ perceived enemies. They’ve shown a willingness to place trolls into positions of power for the sake of “owning the libs” (see also Steve Bannon and Chris Rufo).
Let us not forget that Donald Trump was a Twitter troll known for crude insults and conspiracy theories before he became president. And he rode that persona all the way to the White House. So there’s a clear reward system for conservatives: Viciously attack liberals online, and right-wingers — either voters or officials who answer to them — will give you power.
Raichik is just further proof that the MAGA movement wants more trolls calling the shots.