Police are using Grindr & other apps to entrap & torture LGBTQ+ people

[Behind the Aegis]

The international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Grindr of not doing enough to prevent violence against LGBTQ+ users by anti-LGBTQ+ officials in Africa and the Middle East.

In a new report, HRW interviewed 90 LGBTQ+ people who had been digitally targeted on these apps by officials in five countries: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. HRW also interviewed 30 experts about anti-LGBTQ+ harassment in each country.

“Authorities across the five countries manually monitor social media, create fake profiles to impersonate LGBT people and entrap them on dating applications such as Grindr and social media platforms such as Facebook,” HRW wrote.

Authorities sometimes publish LGBTQ+ people’s personal information on social media, leaving them subject to familial violence or homelessness. Other authorities meet with LGBTQ+ people in public, detaining them and then unlawfully searching their personal devices, often under threat of violence. Using these devices, authorities collect or create private information that’ll enable them to prosecute the detainee and their suspected LGBTQ+ associates.

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[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

1. Thanks for posting. LGBT+ folks are the new preferred scapegoats

for fascists in the world today.

In the US, it is disappointing to see how little protection and support the LGBT+ community is receiving from the left. During the Obama administration, things were moving forward for LGBT+ equality.
Now, fascists (most notably the Nazis and christo-fascists) in the US are terrorizing and bullying innocent Americans into driving some LGBT+ folks back into the closet, particularly in rural areas of the US.

The silence from too many of the left regarding the "normalization" of attacks of all kinds on the LGBT+ community is deafening, disappointing, and sometimes even directly and indirectly lethal. As democratic Democrats, we need to stand up against the fascist hate and vigorously support our LGBT+ sisters and brothers.

Record LGBT support for Democrats in midterms, NBC News Exit Poll shows

More than 80 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people voted for their district’s Democratic House candidate, according to the NBC News Exit Poll.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/record-lgbt-support-democrats-midterms-nbc-news-exit-poll-shows-n934211

"First, they came for our LGBT+ friends, family, and loyal allies, and we did nothing..."

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Well stated.

Certain minority groups get "passed over" in regard to concerns depending on where the anti-GLBT activity is taking place. It becomes a secondary concern, if one at all.

What is sad is some countries were headed in the right direction, then backslid. Others were poised to lighten up on gay people, then it changed. Even in countries where homosexuality was at least tolerated, are now becoming increasingly dangerous, if not deadly. When extremists take over or gain significant power, the gay community is always an easy and convenient target; hell, it's happening in THIS country in many parts.

[Sympthsical]

2. Absolutely a problem in the Middle East

I have a friend who's British/Lebanese with a Saudi partner. They visit family in the region often. He was telling me how they'll delete the apps from their phones while visiting, because you never know who is watching where.

It's a particular thing for his partner, because he's still not out to his family at all. They're well off and run a family business he's a part of, and they would cut him off and consider him dead if they knew. Dude's 32 years old.