Moroccans Use Grindr Location Data to Target Gays
Community in fear after social media infl uencer encourages mass outings
BY MATT TRACY
Gay men in Morocco are
fearing for their lives
after as many as 100
were outed by individuals
who tracked down their locations
on gay dating apps.
The wave of outings, which were
encouraged by a prominent Moroccan
transgender social media infl
uencer, have especially instilled
anxiety in the nation’s queer community
because of Morocco’s anti-
LGBTQ culture and laws that call
for up to three years behind bars
for “lewd or unnatural acts with an
individual of the same sex.”
A New York City-based gay activist
has since stepped in to assist
victims, but much damage is
already done: According to one report
by Moroccan news outlet Le
Desk, one outed victim died by suicide,
while others have been booted
from their homes in the middle of
the coronavirus pandemic.
Multiple publications, including
The New York Times and the BBC,
reported that the social media
icon Naoufal Moussa faced online
abuse of her own on April 13. In
an effort to prove a point that there
are more LGBTQ individuals in
Moroccan society than previously
believed, she then encouraged
women to download gay dating
apps like Grindr and Planet Romeo
and create fake profi les. Many individuals
followed her advice and
located many queer men who were
➤ RICHARD GRENELL, from p.12
distance himself from MBS.
Earlier this month, the president,
in a tweet, referred to the
crown prince as “my friend.”
How Grenell plans to convince
Trump that the US should cut back
on intelligence-sharing with Saudi
Arabia — whom the president sees
as a key partner in shaping Middle
East policy — over LGBTQ rights
given his indifference about the
Khashoggi murder is unknown.
Despite Grenell twice now having
announced that he would be
in close proximity to them.
The mass outing idea originated
when a 22-year-old, only identifi ed
by The New York Times as Yassine,
appeared on an Instagram Live
video with Moussa. To his surprise,
Moussa — who has aggressively
stressed that LGBTQ people
need to come out — pushed him
to reveal that he is gay and threatened
to show photos of him with
another man, sending his life into
a tailspin. Yassine was living with
a family member, but has since
been forced out of that living arrangement
and rented an apartment
with his savings, according
to The Times.
“Everybody is sending the video
and saying bad things about me,”
Yassine told The Times. “My mom,
also, she’s very sad. She’s not talking
to me anymore. My friends at
the gym, friends I went to school
with — they all blocked me.”
Many criticized Moussa for outing
Yassine — especially when he
was not prepared — and reported
her Instagram account. It was
then that Moussa opted to encourage
folks to out gay men via dating
apps. People who downloaded
the app then took photos from the
accounts of gay men and posted
them on Facebook.
Queer groups in Moroco are encouraging
gay men to be cautious
on gay dating apps.
“We ask all the gay men in Morocco,
especially those living with
their family during this lockdown,
leading the charge on decriminalizing
homosexuality worldwide, he
is far better known for his undiplomatic
posture when confronting
opponents — and even US allies.
On the day that he assumed his
post as US ambassador in Berlin,
he tweeted, “As @realDonaldTrump
said, US sanctions will target critical
sectors of Iran’s economy. German
companies doing business in
Iran should wind down operations
immediately.” The missive drew
harsh criticism across the German
political spectrum.
In 2012, Grenell served for just 12
REUTERS/ ALY SONG
LGBTQ groups in Morocco are encouraging gay
men to get rid of the Grindr accounts after a social
media infl uencer encouraged people to use the
app’s location data to identify gay locals.
to disable their Grindr account,”
stated an April 27 post on a Facebook
page called The Moroccan
LGBT Community. “Things might
get even worst sic in the month of
Ramadan!”
An administrator of that Facebook
page, Samir el Mouti, told
Gay City News that gay men have
been reaching out to privately
share their stories of homophobia
following the outings. To date, the
administrators have not heard of
any gay men being prosecuted by
authorities.
“We have not received any kind
of information about the arrests of
days as the foreign policy spokesperson
for Mitt Romney’s presidential
campaign — until the outcry
from social conservatives over a
gay man holding that post led him
to resign. During that fl ap, his history
as what would later come to
be known as an internet troll also
came to light, and Grenell ended up
deleting hundreds of tweets, many
of them sexist and dating as far
back as his time as spokesperson
for John Bolton when he served as
President George W. Bush’s ambassador
to the United Nations.
Among his more infamous
INTERNATIONAL
gay men; most of the sources we get
are from people who were directly
affected by the situation and so far
no one has contacted us about any
kind of arrest,” el Mouti wrote in
a Facebook message to Gay City
News. “With the lock down it is not
easy to get information about arrests.
So far, gay men have asked
for help as they had to leave their
parents’ homes as result of being
outed.”
Also compounding victims’ fears
is the lack of protection for those
who are gay. Because Morocco
lacks nondiscrimination or hate
crime protections for queer people,
those facing abuse say they are left
to fend for themselves because they
are not getting assistance from authorities
like they would in at least
some other countries.
Adam Eli, an activist who founded
the LGBTQ Voices4 group in
New York, connected with Moroccan
queer rights advocates to help
get Moussa’s Instagram account
suspended.
“For now the account has been
suspended, and already a new one
has popped up,” Eli told The New
York Times. “We did not solve the
issue of queer-phobia in Morocco.
However, we showed a bunch
of young queer people, who are
scared and in quarantine, that
they are not alone, that they have
the force of the international queer
community behind them.”
Grindr’s press team did not return
requests for comment.
tweets were ones advising MSNBC’s
Rachel Maddow “to take a
breath and put on a necklace,”
and another comparing her looks
to Justin Bieber’s. He also tweeted
about First Lady Michelle Obama
working out and “sweating on the
East Room carpet,” and wondered
if the wife of Romney 2012 rival
New Gingrich Callista Gingrich’s
“hair snaps on.”
The Offi ce of the Director of National
Intelligence, after asking
about the newspaper’s deadline
for the story, did not follow up with
any comment.
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