By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – Grindr, the gay dating app, is not liable to an anonymous male user for having matched him with four adult men who raped him when he was 15 years old, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, said Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which protects online platforms from liability over user content, barred the plaintiff John Doe’s state law claims.
These claims included negligence, failure to warn about the risks of child sexual abuse, and defective design for matching adults and children for illegal sexual activity.
The decision is a victory for social media platforms such as Elon Musk’s X, Meta Platforms’ Facebook, and Google’s YouTube that have long sought Section 230’s protections.
Doe said the four men raped him on consecutive days in April 2019, when he was a high school student in a small Nova Scotia town, after he signed up for Grindr and falsely represented he was at least 18.
Three of the men received multi-year prison terms for their conduct, while the fourth was at large, court papers show.
Writing for a three-judge appeals court panel, Circuit Judge Sandra Ikuta said Grindr was not liable solely for publishing Doe’s communications with his attackers because the features allowing those communications were “content neutral.”
She also said Doe did not allege that the West Hollywood, California-based company actively engaged in sex trafficking, while Grindr’s statement that its app was “designed to create a safe and secure environment” was not an enforceable promise.
Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer for Doe, in an email called the outcome disappointing.
“Grindr markets to children and recommends them to geographically proximate adults,” she said. “We have faith the Supreme Court, which has expressed disgust about the overreach of Section 230, will correct course.”
Ambika Kumar, a lawyer for Grindr, declined to comment.
Members of the 9th Circuit panel were appointed by Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Tuesday’s decision upheld a December 2023 dismissal by U.S. District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, another Bush appointee.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler)
