Is second graders learning about furries?
That is what the prominent right-wing Twitter account called out on Monday. It turns out that the people of TikTok fell for a troll. The accusations she made were not true.
Tweet may have been deleted
The account, which is run by conservative activist Chaya Raichik, claims that a second grade teacher in Austin gave students a Furry Wordsearch and an activity on designing their own furry persona.
A fake Facebook post shared by @LibsofTikTok that was created by a troll on rDrama. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
The picture of the alleged furry-related schoolwork was embedded in the tweet by the Libs of TikTok. The design your fursona page asked students to pick out their furry gender and the furries word search sheet told parents that their students would be learning about it.
An internet troll created fake schoolwork about furries, which was shared by @LibsofTikTok as if it were real. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
The Austin Independent School District is a district that runs 125 schools in Austin, Texas. The school district was accused of child abuse and of teaching sexual fetishes to children.
The school district was reached out to by Mashable. These were not taught in any second grade class and were not part of the district's curriculum.
The curriculum team looked at the resources and they are not part of the curriculum. The daily functions of the district were interrupted by the messages on the TikTok account.
It was not surprising that Austin was unable to find these things in their curriculum. They were created by an online troll on the website rDrama for the purpose of tricking reactionary internet users like Raichick.
In a post that was deleted 12 days before TikTok fell for the fakes, members discussed a troll that was created for Furry Culture Month. The post compiles a number of posts from the mod in an attempt to trick users.
The rDrama user who created the thread said that most of the top comments aren't falling for it, but if you sort by controversial comments you get a few special redditors.
Raichik would also fall for the troll.
An archived Google cache of the rDrama.net forum thread from April 13 discussing the furry troll. Credit: Mashable Screenshot
rDrama.net is a spinoff of the shuttered r/drama subreddit. The website and its users are known for creating internet hoaxes, such as last year's Abortion Bounty Hunters group, which has since been shut down.
The rDrama.net exists to create drama. Members of the forum claim to not be all that ideological, simply looking to troll those who easily fall forragebait.
The creator gave a shout out to Drama in the Furry Word Search.
A highlight of the "rDrama" shoutout in the fake furry word search that fooled @LibsofTikTok. Credit: Mashable
Furries are an internet subculture where members often create an animal version of themselves and act as that animal character. Furries are not sexual in nature, but they have pigeonholed the community into being identified as such by the mainstream.
A right-wing social media account with over one million followers called "Limons of TikTok" is often used to target people who post videos on the TikTok platform. Chaya Raichik has bragged about the account's influence on Republican administrations in Florida and Texas. In the last few months, both states have pushed anti-gay legislation. The supporters of the account claim that it only re-posts videos of the individual it is targeting.
Tweet may have been deleted
A physical address, place of work, phone number, and email of the targeted person were previously doxed by the Libs of TikTok account. The listed phone number was encouraged by the libs of TikTok. The post accusing the suicide prevention hotline of being a rooming organization was deleted.
Tweet may have been deleted
Raichik has posted fake stories before. The account spread a conspiracy theory about schools leaving out litter boxes for students who were choosing to identify as cats.
The account was previously run by someone. Last week, Washington Post journalist Taylor Lorenz discovered that Chaya Raichik was behind the account. The report revealed that Raichik is being funded by the right-wing media outlet, The Babylon Bee, to run the Libs of TikTok account.
Lorenz's journalistic tactics, such as knocking on doors to confirm she had the correct information, were criticized by conservatives. If Raichik and the Libs of TikTok were to engage in similar due diligence, they could have avoided publishing a post that resulted in harassing messages being sent to the faculty of the entire school district.
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