APP-ALLING!
I’m victim of fake profile on gay hookup site: suit
IT REALLY Grindrs his gears.
A Harlem man is battling the makers of Grindr, the popular gay dating and hookup app, after saying 1,100 suitors have come to to his home and the restaurant where he works expecting sex.
For the last five months, as many as 16 people a day have been arriving and “aggressively demanding sex” from Matthew Herrick, according to a complaint filed Wednesday.
An ex-boyfriend has been allegedly creating fake accounts to lure the men to Herrick’s door.
“It’s a living hell,” Herrick, 32, told Wired magazine.
“My entire life has been stolen from me. My privacy has been taken from me. I’m humiliated daily.”
Besides sharing photos and details about Herrick, some profiles claim he is HIV-positive and that interested men should not be discouraged if he’s resistant because it’s “part of an agreed-upon rape fantasy or role play,” according to the suit. The bogus accounts advertise sex, orgies and drugs, according to the suit.
Herrick “has experienced grave emotional distress and trauma because Grindr’s products and services marshaled an endless stream of horny and violent strangers into his life,” the suit reads.
Herrick charges that Grindr shares the blame for offering a “dangerous product,” comparing the app to a car battery.
“If the manufacturer and seller both know the battery could explode, there’s a duty to inform users of the risk,” attorney Carrie Goldberg told CNN. “Not to mention a duty to evaluate whether the product is so dangerous it should be removed from the market altogether.”
Herrick’s complaint filed in Manhattan Federal Court claims he filed over 100 reports through the app notifying Grindr of the fake profiles, yet the only reply he received was a boilerplate message stating, “Thank you for your report.”
“They were setting him up to be sexually assaulted,” Goldberg told Wired. “It’s just luck that it hasn’t happened yet.”
A judge in state court approved a restraining order in January demanding Grindr disable the fake accounts. But that order expired when Herrick refiled his suit in Federal Court. Meanwhile, he says, the stream of sex-seekers continues unabated.
Goldberg and attorney Tor Ekeland are representing the parttime actor and model as they accuse Grindr of fraud and deceptive business practices.
Grindr’s lawyer, Daniel Waxman, plans to argue the suit should be tossed out.
Grindr said in a statement that it is “committed to creating a safe environment through a system of digital and human screening tools, while also encouraging users to report suspicious and threatening activities.”
“It is important to remember that Grindr is an open platform,” the statement added. “Grindr cooperates with law enforcement on a regular basis and does not condone abusive or violent behavior.”