Anti-LGBTQ group banned from Facebook after campaign against children’s hospital
Boston Children’s Hospital has been inundated with abusive messages after false claims about it were made online.
Words: Alastair James; pictures: Pexels
An anti-LGBTQ social media group has been banned from Facebook after it made several false claims against a children’s hospital in the US.
‘Libs of TikTok’, which is run by the real estate agent, Chaya Raichik, revealed on Wednesday (17 August) that they had been banned from the app by Meta.
Posting on Twitter they said Meta had suspended the account and that they had “immediately appealed.” Apparently, “Within 2 minutes they answered that we’re suspended for good. I’m sure we totally got a full and fair review”.
They suspended our account and we immediately appealed. Within 2 minutes they answered that we’re suspended for good. I’m sure we totally got a full and fair review
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 18, 2022
It follows a large amount of hate being directed toward the Boston Children’s Hospital after false claims were made about the care it was giving to trans youth.
As reported by NBC News, one such debunked claim was that the hospital was providing gender-affirming hysterectomies to under 18s. The website for the centre providing treatment to trans youth states: “All genital surgeries are only performed on patients age 18 and older.”
This was also confirmed to NBC by the hospital in a statement.
NBC also reports that the hospital communicated with staff recently about how to deal with harassment following a wave of abusive messages including death threats. Individual doctors have also been targeted by anti-LGBTQ trolls and groups online.
“We are deeply concerned by these attacks on our clinicians and staff fueled by misinformation and a lack of understanding and respect for our transgender community,” the hospital has said.
NBC also reports that in June Raichik tweeted about a children’s hospital in Nebraska, which had been present at a Pride event. They also posted about a children’s hospital in Pittsburgh which had posted a video discussing puberty blockers, which led to similar hate being directed at the hospital.
According to NBC, Twitter is looking into the situation.
The Attitude September/October issue is out now.
