A group of TikTok creators is attempting to flood Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s education inbox with spam.
Thousands of people are reportedly sending spam emails to the educational resource created to report public school teachers for teaching critical race theory. One woman even set up a website that automatically generates emails to the address, then embeds an assortment of song lyrics in the email.
“I’m indescribably angry with right-wing pundits trying to stoke nonexistent division while the U.S. is actively being labeled a backsliding democracy,” Sofia Ongele, creator of the website, told Insider. “Seeing that Glenn Youngkin was trying to vilify educators, I thought I would do everyone a favor and take that tip line down.”
@genzforchange @0liviajulianna #genzforchange #genz #gz4ccommunity Mimimimi – Sam
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Ongele said her website, created on Wednesday, has had 1,500 visitors every 30 minutes.
Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter was unable to confirm whether third parties had spammed the tip line.
“The governor’s office set up [the tip line] as a resource for parents, teachers, and students to relay any questions or concerns,” Porter told the Washington Examiner. “Gov. Youngkin was elected to serve all Virginians and has utilized a customary constituent service to hear from Virginians and solicit feedback.”
Ongele is part of Gen-Z for Change, a group of more than 500 creators “fighting for progressive change to promote civil discourse and political action among our generation.” It currently has 1.4 million followers on TikTok.
“If Governor Youngkin is worried that his tactics to distract from his poor handling of the pandemic are being disrupted by the collective effort of a bunch of kids who think racism is bad, he should feel free to contact us at our tip line: [email protected]. Then again, we appreciate Governor Youngkin sticking to email — it would have been a real pain to lick this many envelopes,” a representative for Gen-Z for Change told the Washington Examiner.
Gen-Z for Change is not the only group to advocate for spamming the education inbox, as several accounts on Twitter and Instagram have also advocated for it.
Youngkin previously signed executive orders banning critical race theory from being taught in school. He also created a tip line on Tuesday for parents to email evidence of schools requiring masks or promoting “divisive practices” in schools.
“We’re asking for folks to send us reports and observations that they have that will help us be aware of things like privilege bingo, be aware of their child being denied their rights that parents have in Virginia. And we’re going to make sure we catalog it all,” Youngkin said in an interview with conservative radio host John Fredericks.
Local education leaders were not fond of the tip line.
“Hotline, tip line, snitch line — whatever you want to call it,” Prince William County School Board Chairman Babur Lateef told NBC Washington 4. “I don’t see how this will solve any real problems.”
This would not be the first tip line directly targeted by Gen-Z. In September, several efforts were made to troll a Texas tip line allowing people to report suspected abortions, forcing the site to shut down.
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A group of TikTok creators also claim they acquired all the tickets for a June 2020 Trump rally with the intent of not showing up to the event, causing the arena to appear much emptier than the ticket sales had implied.
