New documents have revealed that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has been sending examples of online “LGBTQ+ hate”—including posts from Libs of TikTok, Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, and Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo—to government agencies with the intention of persuading the state to process such posts as acts of terrorism.
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This was first reported by The Daily Signal, the media arm of the Heritage Foundation, and the division that carried out the investigation, the Oversight Project.
“The ADL, and similar organizations, are a key driver of government weaponization,” said Oversight Project director Mike Howell. “They provide the phony predication and intellectual cover in order to point the people with guns at their enemies. Our investigative work continues to expose examples of these groups driving government action.”
The Oversight Project submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Washington State Fusion Center (WSFC), a government agency in the state of Washington that unites multiple intelligence agencies to engage in counterterrorism. Among the emails and documents recovered in this probe, the Oversight Project found an email sent to the agency by the ADL regarding the “extremist landscape.” It was sent from the ADL’s law enforcement email address to an intelligence analyst at WSFC named Tyler Phelan.
With a subject line reading “LGBTQ+ Hate,” the email spun a narrative about online conservative pundits pushing content featuring the “vilification of drag shows” and “baseless claims of ‘child grooming’ by LGBTQ+ people.” According to the ADL, “right-wing media personalities” have used “mainstream platforms” to propagate their “accusations and stances” which “further endangered and isolated an already at-risk community.”
The ADL also motioned the counterterrorism center to visit its blog and its Center on Extremism for detailed examples of “extremism across the ideological spectrum.” On its blog, one can find a post with the same language found in the email that tips the reader off to key players in this network of anti-LGBTQ+ “extremists,” including Libs of TikTok (a popular social media channel that reposts content from left-wing activists), Daily Wire host Matt Walsh (creator of the trans-skeptical documentary “What is a Woman?”), Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo (author of America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything), conservative news network Blaze Media, and the Gay Against Groomers.
In the blog post, the ADL makes it abundantly clear that it wants the government to go after these users:
“ADL is advocating for government partners to strengthen laws against perpetrators of online hate, as well as consulting with law enforcement partners to act on online hate speech that incites violence and/or credible threats. ADL will continue to develop community partnerships with LGBTQ+ leaders and organizations such as GLAAD, in efforts to counter hate speech with positive speech.”
The ADL was specifically created to protect Jewish people from civil harassment, which makes it all the more ironic that Chaya Raichik, the creator of Libs of TikTok, is a Jewish woman.
Elon Musk replied to Raichik’s X post sharing the story with an exclamation point.
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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2024
Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has been in an on-and-off battle with the ADL after the group accused him of harboring hate speech, boosting antisemitism, and allowing various extremist political accounts to proliferate on his social media platform. In September, Musk threatened to release documents that would expose the ADL for asking him to censor content, again singling out Chaya Raichik and her Libs of TikTok account. He also threatened to sue the ADL for defamation. In November, Musk criticized the ADL for going after “the majority of the West” rather than the “minority groups who are [the Jewish people’s] primary threat.”
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).
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