Lack of protections can enable "mission-oriented perpetrators," Liz Coston, an assistant professor in the department of gender, sexuality and women's studies at the Virginia Commonwealth University, told NBC News. One of the victims, who said he went to the location under the pretext of sex, told a local newspaper that he was ordered to empty his pockets, hand over his personal property and give the suspect his bank card pin number. In Oklahoma, a man was arrested last September after police said he kidnapped and robbed several men at gunpoint after luring them via Grindr to an Oklahoma City location. “In this case, the defendants misused the internet for sinister purposes in order to target an innocent man based on his sexual orientation, causing him bodily harm and damage to his property.” Brown for the Eastern District of Texas said in a statement last April after two of the men were sentenced. “This case highlights the danger of the internet and specifically, online apps,” U.S. The men, whose ages ranged from 19 to 21, were sentenced to between 10 and 20 years in prison for breaking into victims' homes, tying them up with tape, physically assaulting them and yelling gay slurs at them.
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Last year, following a similar incident, authorities charged four men with federal hate crimes for a series of North Texas assaults and robberies after they posed as gay and manipulated victims into divulging their home addresses via the app in 2017. "The indictment further alleges that Jenkins and Henry caused bodily injury to four victims because of their actual and perceived sexual orientation," a Justice Department statement reads. “We also listen to and engage with our community through many channels, encouraging them to report suspicious activities, and investigating and addressing issues that are brought to our attention.” Related “We take a number of measures to protect our community: from providing safety information to assist users when interacting with others online, banning user accounts that violate our Community Guidelines, redesigning our in-app reporting process, to obscuring geo-hashing data in countries where it is unsafe for the LGBTQ+ community,” the spokesperson continued. In a statement shared with NBC News, a Grindr spokesperson said the company is “deeply saddened and disturbed by the violence perpetrated” upon the victims and added that the company is “committed to creating a safe online environment for all of our users.”
They will read about this case and continue to go about their day. "To some, this will be just another hateful and violent act in America. "The allegations are that social media contacts were used to target, contact, rob, fatally shoot one gay man and seriously wound another gay man," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement.