Makg Visible the Unseen Queer: Gay Datg Apps and Iologi of Tthmakg an Outg Campaign Moroc | SprgerLk

Contents:

• GAY MOROCNS FACE BLACKMAIL, BULLYG AFTER THEY WERE OUTED ONLE
• GAY MOROCNS OUTED THE MIDST OF RONAVIS LOCKDOWN
• MAKG VISIBLE THE UNSEEN QUEER: GAY DATG APPS AND IOLOGI OF TTHMAKG AN OUTG CAMPAIGN MOROC
• THE TOP LGBTQ+ DATG S AND APPS: 14 BT GAY DATG S
• MOROC INSTAGRAM FLUENCER APOLOGIS FOR ROLE OUTG OF GAY MEN

GAY MOROCNS FACE BLACKMAIL, BULLYG AFTER THEY WERE OUTED ONLE

TUNIS (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Morocn men on gay datg apps have seen their pictur leaked onle recent weeks, rights groups said, an ‘outg’ mpaign targetg LGBT+ Arabs that has raised ncern about vulnerable ers of apps like men Moroc, where homosexualy is illegal, were tricked to sharg timate pictur of themselv by ers who posed as potential dat and then shared the imag onle, acrdg to LGBT+ rights group Nassawiyat. Wh a ronavis lockdown place some of them have no place to turn, ” said a Nassawiyat closure of gay bars and other LGBT spac around the world due to measur curbg the novel ronavis panmic has led to a surge the e of LGBT+ datg apps like apps have taken steps to protect ers om ntractg the vis but velopers are unr prsure to protect the inti of ers untri like Sdi Arabia where gay sex n be punishable by outg of men Moroc was sparked by a mol, Sofia Taloni, who a seri of Instagram live streams told her 620, 000 followers to download datg apps to lote gay men.

It uld show you your hband your bedroom, uld show you your son who might be the bathroom, ” Taloni said vio seen by the Thomson Rters ’s acunt, which was spend on Friday, did not explicly ll on viewers to out gay men but LGBT+ rights groups say men were targeted by ers who ced her. MALICIOUS PROFILES“We’ve disabled the fluencer’s Instagram and Facebook acunts and we’re takg proactive steps to fd and remove other ntent like this, ” said a Facebook, the world’s bt known gay datg app, allows ers so-lled high-risk untri like Moroc to e premium featur cludg a screenshot blocker and photos that tomatilly erase a few sends after beg shared wh those rryg out so-lled tfish attacks by cultivatg a fake persona n circumvent screenshot blocks by g a send phone to film the screen of another vice, rights groups say. Left: Sofia Talouni, a trans woman origally om Moroc, "outed" a gay man an April 10 Instagram Live feed, sayg she wanted to expose hypocrisy and homophobia Morocn society.

We have chosen to only publish screengrabs of the vio a send Instagram feed on April 13, which was streamed by more than 100, 000 ers, Talouni urged her followers: “Girls, go and download gay datg apps....

GAY MOROCNS OUTED THE MIDST OF RONAVIS LOCKDOWN

For those who thk that their man is irreproachable, for mothers who sult gay people, for those who say to me, 'My man is more of a man than you, Sofia' -- now is your opportuny. Badi says is a shame that gay Morocn men n no longer tst the anonymy of gay datg s, a untry where homosexualy is punishable by six months to three years prison:The datg s were a breath of eedom. But homosexualy is crimalised unr the law, so this procs don’t work, ” says Walid Ennis, an LGBTQ 2018, 170 people were arrted on charg of homosexualy Moroc, acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn.

Alongsi other popular gay apps like PlaRomeo and Hor, Grdr appeals to s ers wh the promise that, by downloadg the app, they will be put ntact wh an unseen world of men-seekg-men that exists around them— their neighborhood, their cy, their muny—through the means of s lotn-based chat servic.

MAKG VISIBLE THE UNSEEN QUEER: GAY DATG APPS AND IOLOGI OF TTHMAKG AN OUTG CAMPAIGN MOROC

In recent years, lotn-based gay datg apps like Grdr, Hor, and PlaRomeo have been ployed as tools for homophobic vigilant to “hunt” gay men orr to expose their sexual orientatn, to shame gay men ont of their fai and iends, and to m homophobic acts of vlence. In Rsia, for example, crimal gangs are known to create fake profil on gay datg apps, lurg unspectg men to meetg them only to extort the men for brib unr the threat of exposure or vlence (Carroll, 2019). In South Korea, screenshots om gay datg apps have been ed as evince ary trials implitg active-duty soldiers of illegal same-sex acts (Gzen, 2021) this chapter, I analyze a mpaign targetg gay, bisexual, and queer men Moroc which young women create fake profil on Grdr and PlaRomeo orr to expose or “out” lol men prumed to be gay.

Footnote 1 In addn to facg potential crimal punishment on the basis of their sexualy, many Morocn gay men experience abe and vlence om the police, neighbors, and fay when they are perceived to challenge lol heteronormative expectatns of proper genred behavr (Ale-Ebrahim, 2019). I argue that the sign featur of lotn-based gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo allow for the possibily of both sirable nnectn and unwanted exposure for queer men Moroc, challengg the misnceptn that the apps functn as unplited “safe spac” for queer timacy and muny buildg. Multiple actors Morocn social media works, workg alongsi the sign of the apps themselv, “entextualize” (Bman & Briggs, 1990) imag and text msag shared on gay datg apps as transparent ditors of same-sex sire, a “media iology” (Gershon, 2010) that prents risks for gay app ers Moroc.

THE TOP LGBTQ+ DATG S AND APPS: 14 BT GAY DATG S

This teractn soon beme a nontatn when Talouni prsured the young man to publicly intify himself as gay and threatened to post “revealg photos showg him wh another gay man” if he did not ply (Alami, 2020).

After he persistently refed to intify himself as gay spe creasg prsure om Talouni, she then displayed a photo for her viewers of what appeared to be the young man loungg at a pool wh an olr beard European man, prentg the photo as unniable evince of his homosexualy. In later social media posts, Talouni claimed that her tent wh this send livtream was to brg gay men “closer to the mastream society” Moroc by enuragg her followers to “thk of gay people as the man or woman next door and to stop the negative fantasy of who gay people are, how they look like and how they live” (Greenhalgh & Al-Khal, 2020).

MOROC INSTAGRAM FLUENCER APOLOGIS FOR ROLE OUTG OF GAY MEN

Dpe her claims, this send Instagram broadst rerc misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic rhetoric Moroc that glorifi hegemonic heteromasculy at the expense of non-normative genr exprsn and same-sex sexualy. Talouni begs her send Instagram broadst by statg, lloquial Morocn Arabic, “I feel bad for some loubiyat [rogatory term for gay men, roughly equivalent to ‘faggots’ English], but I don’t really re. ” She go on to enurage her female dience to download gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo as tools to disver a salac unrworld of same-sex sire their immediate geographil vicy:Listen up, girls: Open the App Store, you’ll type [ the search bar] ‘gay apps.

All you women, girls, those who wear hijab who say ‘there is no hband like me [on the apps], ’ the mother who says ‘my son is the bt’ and curs and swears about homosexuals like me, who says ‘my hband is much more mascule than you, Sofia, you loubia.

Talouni giv tailed stctns for how women n easily create fake profil on gay apps like Grdr, posg as gay men orr to solic promisg rmatn about the same-sex sir of their male relativ and neighbors for future e blackmail and timidatn. Talouni prents this as a quasi-femist act, enuragg her female followers to arm themselv wh an archive of digal evince pictg the shameful homosexual sir of the men their immediate social circl as a way to unteract potential future cricism of their own sexualy and relatnships. In the Instagram broadst that started this outg mpaign, Talouni displays a digal photograph, obtaed om an unknown source, as supposedly unniable proof of a young man’s homosexual orientatn.