The crackdown on LGBT Egyptians under the regime of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ramped up since he took office in June, with discouraging reports of police entrapment through social media.
While there is no confirmed evidence of police using social networks to target gay people, an article that ran in the English-language Egyptian news publication Cairo Scene on September 2 called out Grindr as the primary tool for authorities to entrap people.
That was enough to get Grindr to implement a warning message when users open the app. Seen in the screen-grab above, it reads:
“Speak Safely — Egypt is arresting LGBT people, and police may be posing as LGBT on social media to entrap you. Please be careful about arranging meetings with people you don’t know, and be careful about posting anything that might reveal your identity.”
On Thursday six men were convicted of advertising their apartments on Facebook for gay men to use for a discreet hookup, which does suggest that police are keeping a watchful eye on the internet. The going rate is $200 to rent someone’s home for the night. The going rate for getting caught offering such a transaction is 2 years with labor.
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Some 80 people this year have been arrested on charges of homosexual conduct. Grindr was under criticism earlier this year for its location feature which some argued could be used to pinpoint a users exact location.
h/t Buzzfeed
jmmartin
Do you remember the Nile River cruise on a barge type party boat several years ago. The police arrested the entire boat and interrogated and embarrassed many dozen people. Some were severely beaten to force confessions and turn in their friends. That happened in the U.S.A. during the 50s, too. It was called the House Un-American Affairs Committee. They had hearings. They found people guilty by association. In Egypt or in America, shame!
wpewen
Grindr is pretty bad stuff. As an older guy who’s sorta out of the loop I find the concept cold as hell Bars are bad enough, Guess Grindr is what they have in those sexually psychotic societies.
jd2222248
My brothers in Egypt, please be safe.
i43neile
This doesn’t just happen in Egypt. It’s happening in most muslim countries. the police use the gay social media networks to catch gays because it’s a promotion for them to catch “criminals”. Sometimes they use baits.
My friend worked as a nurse in Qatar. He’s been there for 2 years. He was on planetromeo where he met a very hot local. They were about to do it in the hotel room when they got busted by the police. My friend was given a choice of accepting the charges and be deported or fight it out in courts without any chance of winning and go to prison. Of course my friend abandoned his job, his contract and everything and had to leave within 24 hours.
What’s ironic is that the guy he met messaged him again on Planetromeo asking for an apology for what happened. He happens to be gay and HIV+. He can’t work so what he does is act as bait for the police. He explained that police do that in order to get promoted.
It’s been going on for years even before the gay social media.
juanchi83
I am currently working in kuwait which also has strict laws against homosexuality however doesnt seem to act on them too much being the majority of arab are bi (or in their words “tops”). My boyfriend and I are traveling to Egypt next month to see the pyramids and I couldn’t be more nervous with how much Egypt has been in the news with their crusade to round up the gays. Wish us luck! Definitely don’t want to become a statistic.
frubino
It is, of course, who does not have education, nothing to do word-for-word understand. As President of Egypt whose mouth smells with love by the police does not have a little confidence. Shame maggot.
wpewen
I hope everyone over there is safe. I also hope the U.S.stops supporting these societies monetarily and militarily that are really going nowhere, not just on gay rights but everything. The Muslim world has evolved into a dead end. I’m a very left leaning Democrat.
vive
Well, let’s not forget that the police still has sting operations to catch gay men having sex in the ole U.S. of A. even today.
Kangol
@jd2222248:
I feel the same way. I hope our Egyptian gay brothers are very careful. They caught hell under Mubarak, they caught hell under the Islamic Brotherhood and Morsi, and they’re catching hell under General Sisi’s rule. This seems like another tool to entrap and persecute them.
Kangol
@juanchi83:
Good luck and please be careful. I’ve heard foreign gay visitors to Egypt don’t have much of a problem if they don’t hook up with Egyptian men (so many of whom are very beautiful) or get involved in anything that might be seen as political, but that was during the Mubarak years. I’m not sure what things are like now for gay travelers under President and General el-Sisi, though.
juanchi83
@Kangol: That’s actually very reassuring. We are very discreet and private and will only be doing the tourist stuff while we are there. I live/work in Kuwait and have traveled to Dubai & Abu Dhabi many times and never had an issue. I’m not fond of the Muslim way of thinking when it comes to homosexuality (like a more extreme version of Christianity) but I do love everything else. I hope it’s not as bad as the media portrays it to be. Which is most cases it is not.