When L’wren Tikva, 23, was invited to speak about a VICE documentary on feminism, she didn’t realize that saying “yes” would have a “horrific” impact on her life.
Tikva — a pro-Israel student at Arizona State University — flew to Manhattan in March to be filmed on a panel with eight other women. But things immediately went awry when the moderator asked if anyone was a Trump supporter. Tikva raised her hand.
“I just really did not like Hillary Clinton,” said Tikva. “I literally sat in the voting booth for a long time, I honestly didn’t even think Donald Trump was going to win, so part of it was kind of a joke,” she explained.
Other panelists called Tikva out for her “privilege” in voting for Trump.
But Tikva — who was clearly stumbling over her words, possibly because it was her first time on camera — attempted to clarify. “I didn’t like either party,” she added.
Nearly all the panelists giggled or looked at Tikva in shock.
A few minutes later, Tikva jumped back into the conversation. “I’m gonna recant my statement. Voting is important. When I said it was a ‘joke,’ it probably was an inappropriate phrase to say.” But the viewers of VICE didn’t care.
Since VICE released the video in March, it’s racked up more than 1.3 million views. And within a week of the video’s release, she was inundated with messages through Facebook. Eventually, Tikva’s phone number was doxxed too.
“I was forced almost immediately to go undercover. I was receiving multiple hateful comments and messages a day. I felt I had to do that to keep my family safe so they wouldn’t be targets of online hate,” Tikva told PJ Media.
“The worst part is one of the panelists, Deja Foxx, told her Instagram followers where I went to college and, due to her careless actions, students at my school found out my class schedule,” alleged Tikva.
Deja Foxx, who has about 30k followers across Twitter and Instagram, did not respond to numerous inquiries by email, Facebook, and Twitter to comment.
“Then, after Deja doxxed me, I received a number of threats online and in person. Many of them wishing that I would kill myself, would die, I got rape threats, death threats, and many comments were attacking me based on my looks,” Tikva told PJ Media.
“I was afraid to even be on campus after that,” she added.
Now, I personally didn’t know about any of this. That was until L’wren Tikva — whom I had never met but who is my friend on Facebook — started posting under a new name. I had loved her old name, so I asked her why she had changed it. New job, perhaps?
But no, she told me. “I was forced to change my name on Facebook and Instagram,” said Tikva. “I thought it was the only way I could escape the threats and protect myself.”
Going forward, Tikva considers herself a Trump supporter, and says she found refuge among her friends from PragerFORCE, a Facebook group for college students who are fans of Prager University.
Instagram photo of L’wren Tikva with PragerFORCE
“I received a ton of support from friends in PragerFORCE… as well as my family. A lot of my friends from PragerFORCE that it’s typical of leftists to try to tear you down. I guess getting doxxed when you’re conservative is inevitable but you really can’t let it get to you.”
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @Toni_Airaksinen.
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