“We hear from people over and over that they will not report violence to police because they met the person through a hook-up app.”
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Eleven social networking companies that facilitate dating and sexual hook-ups — including popular apps for gay men Grindr, Scruff, and Jack'd — have joined an ad campaign to reduce violent attacks on LGBT people who meet using social media.
"We hear from people over and over that they will not report violence to police because they met the person through a hook-up app," Sharon Stapel, executive director of the Anti-Violence Project (AVP), told BuzzFeed News. AVP is administering the campaign.
The ads are appearing on screens throughout New York State, with pop-ups on mobile apps and banner ads on websites, providing advice about how to avoid dangerous situations and ways to report violence to confidential sources. "The way people meet is evolving," said Stapel, "but violence is still occurring. We want to reach people where violence is occurring, and that is online."
The incidents this year include a man who allegedly sexually assaulted and robbed another man he met on Grindr in Philadelphia. In May, a man allegedly bashed another man with a hammer after meeting him through Grindr near Seattle. Most recently, a group of men allegedly robbed a man at gunpoint in a Manhattan apartment two weeks ago after meeting on Badoo.com. But many victims don't report their attacks.
"Sex itself is a stigmatized topic, which inhibits us from having productive conversations about the type of sex individuals are having via these social apps," Rentboy.com's Chief Operating Officer Hawk Kinkaid told BuzzFeed News. Kinkaid said, "When you compound this commonly shared stigma with the vulnerability necessary to expose an act of sexual assault, [reporting violence] becomes a daunting prospect for an individual."
