Despite recent efforts to promote anti-racism on its platform, Grindr remains a toxic environment for LGBTQ+ people of color.
Gene Lim, a PhD candidate at Australia’s Monash University focusing on sexual racism in dating apps, said research participants have noted that their experiences on Grindr have “affected their mental health and sense of belonging.”
“There are a lot of times when people like myself, we just don’t feel like we should be there,” said Lim, a gay Asian man, in a Wednesday interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Your white friends are hooking up left, right, and center. And you’re the only one in your [friend] group who hasn’t had a date or even a hookup in months.”
In September 2018, Grindr launched the Kindr campaign to encourage a more inclusive environment on the app, featuring an array of photo testimonials and videos about a range of topics including femme shaming, body shaming, transphobia and sexual racism.
“At Grindr, we’re into diversity, inclusion, and users who treat each other with respect. We’re not into racism, bullying, or other forms of toxic behavior. These are our preferences,” Grindr said of its campaign, while encouraging people to report discriminatory or racist behavior. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Their type. Their tastes. But nobody is entitled to tear someone else down because of their race, size, gender, HIV status, age, or — quite simply — being who they are.”
As part of their efforts, Grindr also updated its community guidelines to indicate that they would remove any discriminatory statements published on a user’s profile. The app also claimed it would also ban anyone found bullying, threatening or defaming other users.
However, Lim said enforcement of the new rules hasn’t lived up to expectations.
“I know of instances where after someone has been reported for racism or even other offenses, they face zero consequences whatsoever,” Lim said. “Grindr is not ever incentivized to crack down on these individuals. They only take immediate action against people trying to use their platform to advertise paid services.”
This summer, in the wake of widespread protests for Black liberation, Grindr announced that it would remove its ethnicity filter in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, after the company faced renewed criticism of the feature. Grindr also said it would also be making a donation to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute and went on to promote several protests and actions in support of Black queer and trans people.
But after several updates to the app, Grindr faced criticism as reports surfaced that they weren’t following through on their commitment, which a company spokesperson attributed to a delay caused by a change in ownership. Other apps, such as Jack’d and Scruff, followed suit in removing similar features on their platforms.
Even so, the persistent sexual racism on the app, according to Lim’s research, has led some users placing themselves in situations that could be unsafe or exploitative because of a desire for intimacy. As a result, he said, they learn to dial back their expectations.
Lim’s findings follow similar research regarding racism on dating apps such as Grindr. Two years ago, researchers at Cornell University authored a paper calling for the redesign of dating apps to address racial bias, including fixes to discriminatory algorithms, publishing new community guidelines and offering users other ways besides race and ethnicity to describe themselves.
“No one’s asking you to sleep with whomever approaches you,” Lim said. “But I think what a lot of us have been asking for is to be treated like human beings, even if you don’t want to f*ck us.”
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