A deceptively edited video posted by the LibsofTikTok Twitter account earlier this month has helped supercharge a Kremlin-backed anti-LGBTQ disinformation campaign.

The video, published on August 10, appears to suggest that a Pennsylvania-based therapist is advocating for social acceptance of pedophilia. It’s been used by pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, and even a Russian TV station closely linked to the Kremlin, to push the claim that the West is openly embracing pedophilia and encouraging children to invite them into their homes. The campaign has now spread to countries around the globe and racked up hundreds of thousands of likes and shares.

LibsofTikTok, the online persona of Brooklyn real estate agent Chaya Raichik, has been at the forefront of the right’s anti-LGBTQ campaign, targeting schools, hospitals, and libraries in recent months.

“It absolutely petrifies me that hostile foreign powers are listening in to the anti-gay culture wars that she is stoking,” Ernie Piper, a researcher at misinformation tracking group Logically who uncovered the Russian campaign, tweeted.

Russia’s campaign began on August 8, when a couple of local St. Petersburg news pages on the Russian social network Vkontakte (VK) posted images of a leaflet that was reportedly brought back from the U.K titled “What to do if a stranger comes up to you on the street?” The leaflet, the posts claimed, had been distributed to school children in the U.K. that gave instructions telling children “DO NOT be...

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