Right-wing social media personality and troll Kaitlin Bennett was the focus of a protest on Feb. 17, 2020, when students gathered and demanded she leave the Ohio University, Athens campus, where she and her entourage said they were attempting to film a video.
Bennett, who has served as a contributor to the Alex Jones conspiracy-peddling network InfoWars, is also the face of the far-right Liberty Hangout, which brands itself as "the official home of Kaitlin Bennett" and as a "libertarian media outlet" intent on promoting "Austrian economics and property rights," although a recent tweet from the group promoted monarchy over democracy.
Bennett, who has previously stirred controversy by posting images of herself on social media posing with large guns, often on college campuses such as her alma mater Kent State in Ohio, is the founder of Kent State's Liberty Hangout chapter, according to a university spokesperson.
Bennett is more recently known for conducting interviews for both Liberty Hangout and InfoWars in places where she is likely to encounter liberal-minded people in the hopes of instigating responses that entertain her right-wing audience. The results could be described as mixed at best, for her purposes, however. In January 2020, she was criticized for commentary that was viewed as hateful toward the transgender community.
Following a spate of news stories and social media posts about the Feb. 17 incident at Ohio University, several Snopes readers inquired about Bennett and one asked specifically, "Did Kaitlin Bennett’s group Liberty Hangout really tweet then delete these Nazi tweets?"
Liberty Hangout's past social media statements have included homophobic commentary, asserting only the economically-privileged should be allowed to vote, and comparing themselves to Jesus.
A search of internet archiving tools confirmed that on Jan. 30, 2016, the Liberty Hangout Twitter account posted a poll asking other Twitter users to answer the question, "Do you believe the Holocaust happened as we've been told?" In response to that post, one user asked, "What do you think" and Liberty Hangout replied, "It doesn't seem possible that 6 million were killed."