 What should dating apps do to combat discrimination? Go back to Mexico. People like you are the reason that Ebola exists and I hope that you catch it and you die. You're such a dirty, disgusting rat from South Asia. Grindr has launched a new campaign aimed at combating the discrimination plaguing the app. It's set to tackle sexual racism, transphobia, body-shaming, film-shaming, and more. The move's positive, but is it enough? And what are the other apps doing? Here's just a taste of some of the crap people have to put up with. I think if you ask most gay and bisexual men of colour whether they've had negative experiences through Grindr because of racial stereotyping and discriminatory language, most of them would say yes. When I used to use the app, I used to get things like you should f off back home even though I was born in the UK. As a trans woman, I also got fetishised so a lot of people would get in touch with me because they felt Asian people would do certain sexual acts or Asian girls are stereotypically more submissive or tighter down there. Thing is, many parts of the LGBTQ plus community have been vocalising issues with the app for a while. There's definitely a problem here and actually if you put this into context, people of colour that use apps like Grindr have been saying, four years, there's only to be done. And Grindr's existed for almost 10 years and we're only just now hearing about their solidarity and then wanting to do more work. I think it's a really great first step. Earlier this year, trans activist and model Munro Bergdorf tweeted a screenshot of some of the hate she'd received writing, After that, Grindr talked to Munro about how they were going to fight discrimination. Fast forward to now, we've got the Kinda Grindr campaign. The campaign is trying to create a more inclusive space for minorities within a minority. They're doing this through videos profiling users and their experiences with the app as well as changes to community guidelines. Ultimately, these are issues that have been pervasive in the queer community for quite some time and it is our hope that by elevating these experiences and driving awareness into discrimination that's taking place, not just on Grindr but on other apps overall, that we can engage in a more thoughtful, constructive conversation around how we can be more respectful, inclusive, tolerant and just generally kinder to each other as we interact both online and in person. Grindr's Zach Stafford tweeted, So I'm seeing some confusion around Kinda and wanted to clear up one big thing. Discriminatory language like no fats, no fems, no Asians is officially considered discriminatory and will now be banned on Grindr. He adds, A couple of years ago, Tinder also ran their own campaign promoting inclusivity called All Types, All Swipes. It was fronted by Munro Bergdorf and aligned with the app opening up over 40 gender options for people to choose from. These moves are good and necessary but how much will these types of campaigns really change things? I think it's a really great first step. The kind of work that they're doing now is putting them on the path towards understanding these issues a bit better and I definitely commend Zach Stafford at Grindr who is really pushing forward a lot of this kind of stuff. But what I would say is we do need to think about this in context. Has Grindr allowed people of colour to be the victims of racism through their platform before almost 10 years? The answer is yes. Are the changing of these community guidelines useful in a good first step? Yes. While it's a step in the right direction, there's more work to be done. People are calling for the removal of the filters on the app that literally let you pick and choose what ethnicity is you do and don't want to appear. So what else are people asking Grindr to do? There's an opportunity here for people who understand that racism exists within the LGBT community but aren't necessarily a victim of it themselves because I'm talking about white allies. If you're on Grindr and you're seeing people use racialized and discriminatory language call them out on it or use Grindr's new policy and block. Don't make people who are the victims of racism have to call it out all the time. You can work in solidarity and you can be a true ally. It's a step in the right direction for what Grindr are doing but I think it needs to be a bit more of a holistic approach and not just put on one app. One little little app. I don't think it's the responsibility of one little app to kind of tackle this ingrained discrimination that LGBTQ people have for people of color or foreigners or trans people or anything like that. Grindr and apps like Grindr and Tinder did something more to really pinpoint racism on social media and on online dating and it's about time that we put a stop to it. Ultimately it's always great to see anyone pushing back against hate and bigotry but unfortunately it's rife and there's no quick fix. Some people are just assholes. So if you see an egg call them out. Even if you're not the one targeted. Especially if you're not the one targeted.