Photos of gay dating app users have been made public in Morocco. This can have serious consequences, warns human rights organization Human Right Watch.
Dating apps, such as Grindr and Hornet, created fake accounts after an Instagram call from transgender model Sofia Taloni on April 13. Women could discover how many men use these apps, including their own husbands, according to Taloni. She said she wanted to expose the hypocrisy in Moroccan society by showing that many men are secretly homosexual.
Insults and threats
Soon, profile pictures of the users of the apps began to circulate on social media, often with offensive texts or threats. This leads to major problems for the men who are ‘out’ unsolicited. Certainly in combination with the strict corona measures in force in Morocco.
Some men have been evicted from their homes by their family, according to Human Rights Watch, and are now forced to sleep on the street because of the lockdown they have nowhere else to turn. All hotels in Morocco are closed and no travel is allowed. Others have been forced to continue living at home with their ‘homophobic’ family, where they are threatened, intimidated and sometimes even abused.
Hate and discrimination
A number of dating apps have already sent a warning to their Moroccan users or to delete all accounts created after April 13. Gay action groups are urging Moroccan men to remove their accounts from the dating apps to protect themselves.
AFP news agency reports that the police have initiated a ‘preliminary investigation’ into the “incite hatred and discrimination” targeting the LGBT community after private data leakage.
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