TikTok Creators Could Be Putting Olympic Athletes In Danger By Outing Them
Image via Funstock / Shutterstock.com
Creators on TikTok have found athletes in Tokyo’s Olympic Village with profiles on gay dating app Grindr.
In a report by Insider, users used the app’s ‘Explore’ feature to scroll through profiles, uncovering some of the athletes’, and then posting videos of their profiles to social media.
However, this could prove to be dangerous for LGBTQ+ athletes, as homosexuality remains a crime in several countries participating in the Summer Games. The posts on social media could potentially out athletes from anti-LGBTQ+ countries, as well as Japanese individuals on the app who aren’t out publicly.
According to Insider, who didn’t link the videos to protect the athletes’ privacy, some videos on TikTok had zoomed in on specific profiles, revealing full faces and identifying information. One video even garnered more than 140,000 views on the platform.
In the comments, activists cautioned other creators from following suit, alerting them to the fact that they may be putting certain LBGTQ+ athletes at risk. The video remained up on TikTok till July 28, when the platform removed it for violating community guidelines.
A Grindr spokesperson told the news outlet: “These individuals are in breach of Grindr’s Terms and Conditions of Service which prohibit them from publicly displaying, publishing, or otherwise distributing any content or information that are part of the Grindr services.”
[via Insider, cover image via Funstock / Shutterstock.com]
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