reprisal

An anonymous source tells Out that Grindr President Scott Chen laid off Into’s entire editorial and social staff without warning Tuesday morning. All three of the publication’s full-time editorial employees are affected, including Managing Editor Trish Bendix and Politics Reporter Nico Lang, as well as all contract writers, columnists, and freelancers who contribute to the site. According to the letter, the “company will be focusing its efforts on video.”

Grindr also laid off INTO’s entire social media team. Our source tells us that this team, composed of three full-time staffers, also managed all of Grindr’s social media accounts. This follows the departure of Grindr’s chief content officer, Zach Stafford, who also served as the publication’s editor-in-chief, as well as the app’s head of communications, Landon Rafe Zumwalt.

OUT

So remember when I told you about that time the straight CEO of Grindr issued his non-apology apology? Yeah, the same sanctimonious, bigoted straight CEO who said that marriage is between a man and a doman has now fired the people who called his bullshit. He's scrubbed INTO, the LGBTQ-centered News repository from the company. Gone, along with the company's whole social media team. The excuse is that they were 'pivoting' to video. But the video division was booted too. Not surprising.

Also:

Grindr, begun by gay California man Joel Simkhai in 2011, was fully purchased by the Chinese corporation Kunlun in 2018. In addition to Chen's remarks, the gay dating app has been a source of several controversies related to its data privacy, such as 2018 reports that it was sharing users' HIV statuses with companies. Grindr has since vowed to stop this practice and strengthen its online security.

Landen Zumwalt — Grindr's former head of communications, who resigned after Chen's marriage comments — said he was "devastated" by the news of the Into layoffs on Twitter.

  ADVOCATE

I have always found Grindr problematic. At several levels. The Chinese now have all the info people post on that app: photos, location, preferences, HIV status.. And they can sell it to the highest bidder. So Grindr is problematic. And now more than ever. And because I am one of those gays who puts his money where his mouth is, I will never use Grindr again. It's been gone from my phone for years now and it will never get back. So what about you? You can whore yourself out and be as slutty as you can be in other more gay-friendly hookup apps. So if you are on Grindr, delete it. Now. Who knows, maybe you'll get away from the bickering, racist, masc4masc toxic environment of that app, owned by a Chinese company that will sell your information to anybody who pays for it. You may even get more tail somewhere else. Go ahead, make the change. I support you.

xoxo