Sofia Taloni is a Moroccan expat living in Turkey. Last week, she encouraged people in her home country to create fake profiles on apps like Grindr and PlanetRomeo so they could out closeted men in their local communities.
“These apps will show you the people who are near to you: 100 meters, 200 meters, even just one meter, just next to you in the living room,” Taloni told her 71,000 followers. “Since everyone is together at home, it could show you your husband in your bedroom, it could show you your son who might be in the bathroom.”
In Morocco, homosexuality is punishable with up to three years in prison. LGBTQ people have no legal protections and are often subjected to harassment and physical violence. What makes the story even worse is that Taloni herself is trans and, presumably, fled the country for this very reason.
Related: One Gay Tourist’s Harrowing Account Of Being Yanked Off The Streets Of Morocco And Thrown In Prison
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Thankfully, Instagram deleted her account on Friday, but not before PlanetRomeo saw a huge uptick in fake profiles created by people looking to out closeted men. Not only that, but public Facebook groups were then created to circulate their images.
It got so bad that PlanetRomeo had to issue a warning to users in Morocco.
“We took immediate action by sending a security message to all our 41,000 users in Morocco,” says Jens Schmidt, founder and CEO of PlanetRomeo, in a statement. “We blocked all profiles created from the time this person addressed her users, and contacted Facebook to have the group page taken offline.”
Facebook responded by putting out a statement that said, “We don’t allow people to out members of the LGBTQ+ community. It puts people at risk, so we remove this content as quickly as we can.”
One young man who had his pictures published online tells Insider,“I’m not just afraid, I’m certain that I will be kicked out immediately. Or worse, beaten up.”
Another calls the whole thing “a witch hunt” and says he’s “living in constant fright,” adding that he’s already begun preparing how he will defend himself when his family inevitably finds out.
Taloni has not issued any comment since making the video and having her Instagram account deleted.
Related: Hours after outing man on Facebook live, woman found dead on side of the road
jayceecook
He, Naofal Moussa, is not trans. He identifies as a gay man. Other sources outside the MS gay media have made mention of this in their reporting of his horrific act. It was 3 dating apps as well. Plus he gave specific instructions to these young girls who are mostly his followers about how to come off as a bottom to attract more closeted gay and bisexual men.
He also has a history of attacking trans women. People on Twitter and other SM platforms have called him out and shared videos from his Snapchat where he is saying these things.
Rock-N-RollHS
Looks like a chick to me.
jayceecook
@Rock-N-RollHS He identifies as a gay man. Makeup and jewelry don’t mean squat. Jeffree Star, Patrick Star, and just about every “glam boy” on YouTube sports a similar look. Cross dressing does not = trans. He has a history of attacking trans people, gay and bi men, as well as people who are HIV+. I read about this story a couple days ago on another site and did some digging to learn more. Sites that are in Arabic or cater to Middle Eastern LGBTQ people have been doing a better job at giving more details. Which makes sense obviously. I know gay men don’t often “gaze” women the same way that straight, bi, and other queer men do but come on…You can clock him from 100 miles away.
jayceecook
Also, he has attacked the few LGBTQ groups in Moroco that exist to help people who are HIV+.
novadude
I’ll bet this vacuous cow is single (can one imagine otherwise?) and figures her prospects would be better if fewer men were gay.
Bzzz.
Sorry sweetie, your dating prospects will only improve when you stop being stupid and obnoxious. Buh Bye.
Invader7
What a crunt.. Miss Thang lives outside of a VERY homophobic country, then turns on gay men. What a C**T. Setting innocent men to be beaten ,attacked or worse.. She has BLOOD on her hands. ” She ” has some bad karma /juju… Stay away from gay men you ungrateful,vicious ,vindictive cow,, Probably pissed : she” isn’t getting any dick…
Chrisk
Someone must have really pissed her off. Even the most hateful of bigots got to be impressed by her viciousness.
Tempus
Wow, how can a member of the LGBT+ community of all people do something like this? I can understand some straight, homophobe but this is just next level internalized homophobia and self hate. Why are people who are clearly homophobic following this “influencer” anyway? I mean on one hand they’re clearly homophobic themselves yet on the other thy are gay and/or trans(article refers to them as trans but commentators say they identify as gay so I’m unsure as to that fact) so why would someone who’s homophobic follow a “influencer” who represents what they hate? Hypocrites I guess
Vince
I just think it’s a product of living in a religiously-based fanatical and intolerant country.
As far as she goes it reminds me of the ex-gays here. Just look how f#cked up they are in the head. Again, religion playing its part.
michel_banen
Exactly what Vince says. 1) It’s Turkey. 2) It’s religion. Add those 2 up and you get this kind of sad behaviour.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
•Paging the most virulent painful excruciating unimaginable agonizing strain of corona virus;
•Your party of one is really for you now
Rock-N-RollHS
There are “evil” people everywhere, of all identities. This is why identity politics is such b.s. People are their actions not their self-proclaimed identities. Anyway, this one probably suffering from a fair share of self-hate and some deep rejection issues here. Although, some people are just sociopaths.
Jon in Canada
Sometimes violence is the answer and we are looking at a question in need of one.
Kangol2
This creature, whom the site Il Grande Colibri describes as a he, comes off as a totally miserable psycho who’s been traumatized and now wants to take out his rage on other gay people. There unfortunately are people out there like this. I pray those men this horrible person has exposed are not harmed, but they certainly remain in danger now that hunting and exposing them has turned into a kind of game on social media. They could face not only expulsion from home and beatings, which the other site says has happened, but also commit suicide or be subjected to an “honor killing.” Absolutely horrific.
frapachino
All “influencers” are awful but this one is particularly awful!
sonic_source
This Sofia Taloni person is a dude in drag, isn’t (s)he?
irbaboon
I bet she is doing this because of islam, she is probably doing this to please allah so he won’t send her to hell
Woteva
With a face like hers, going to hell is a foregon conclusion!
Woteva
Enough to make any man a vagina decliner!
Sad, deluded cow and ugly in every sense of the word. I rest my case.