Man sues for getting 1000 dates

Skanky Vamp

Skanky Vamp

Sniffin' the Slayer
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Black Thorn
From CNN

Over the past five months, Matthew Herrick says that 1,100 men have showed up at his home and workplace expecting to have sex with him. Herrick is suing Grindr, the popular dating app for gay and bisexual men, because of it.

According to the complaint, Herrick, 32, is the victim of an elaborate revenge scheme that's playing out on Grindr's platform. An ex-boyfriend of Herrick's, who he says he met on Grindr, has allegedly been creating fake accounts since October 2016. The accounts have Herrick's photos and personal details, including some falsehoods like a claim that that he's HIV positive.

The ex allegedly invites men to Herrick's apartment and the restaurant where he works. Sometimes as many as 16 strangers each day will show up looking for Herrick. In some instances, they are told not to be dissuaded if Herrick is resistant at first, "as part of an agreed upon rape fantasy or role play."

The case raises important questions in the social media age about impersonation, stalking and harassment.
"What are Grindr's legal responsibilities," asks Aaron Mackey, a Frank Stanton legal fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "And what are its corporate and ethical responsibilities to its users when it learns that its platform is being abused in this way?" Mackey said the answers have big implications.

As with many complaints against tech platforms, Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act is at play in the Grindr case. It's a unique legal protection that gives a broad layer of immunity to online companies from being held liable for user-generated content. Companies are supposed to act in good faith to protect users.

Last week, Facebook (FB, Tech30) announced new measures to combat the spread of "revenge porn" on its platform. It said it would apply photo-matching to ensure intimate, non-consensual images that have been reported aren't able to be re-uploaded through Facebook's properties, including Messenger and Instagram.
The original complaint against Grindr said that hookup app Scruff, which Herrick's ex was also allegedly using to create fake profiles, was able to remove profiles and ban IP addresses.

CNNTech contacted the ex-boyfriend for comment. He denied setting up fake accounts but declined to comment further.
 
ILLYRIAN
ILLYRIAN
I didn't understand most of that, but the parts I did understand I agree with.
Here is a thought, how about the people who organize the world wide web, how about they get some of the blame or partial blame shoved onto them. How about the owners of the web site copping a load of grief. I see no reason why they should be allowed to perpetrate this much distress to people and get away with it scott free. And if they do get busted who decides what the penalty is, my suggestion would be to keep it secret. Give them a 5 star cruise half way to Hawaii.
There are that many viruses on the WWW start closing the WWW.
 
ILLYRIAN said:
the people who organize the world wide web
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"people"

mrely.gif
 
ILLYRIAN
ILLYRIAN
And there was me thinking the cat was typing, dancing on a hot tin roof.
I doubt folk would be impressed about the cat dancing on a hot tin roof.
This is hilarious. As someone who definitely believes in avenging a broken heart, I applaud the ex-boyfriend. Very creative, brutal, and intricate. 😀
 
I heard of a similar case in Australia quite a few years ago. A man (the ex) set up a similar thing on Gumtree (a trading site, kinda like eBay but local) and pretty much this one guy showed up on the woman's house and brutally raped her. There were another six men that had times all lined up to 'see' her. The nurses and doctor's in hospital said it was the worst sexual assault injuries they had ever seen.

Some people make me sick.

I've also been following the story about Chrissy Chambers trying to overturn America's revenge porn laws for the last 3 or 4 years. It's a pretty horrible thing someone can do.
 
Mr. Pole said:
The ex allegedly invites men to Herrick's apartment and the restaurant where he works. Sometimes as many as 16 strangers each day will show up looking for Herrick. In some instances, they are told not to be dissuaded if Herrick is resistant at first, "as part of an agreed upon rape fantasy or role play."
.
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Wow, that ex seems like a piece of work. A valid lesson not to date crazy people, clearly.

Why sue Grindr though and not the ex? More money to get from the first?
 
Taake said:
Wow, that ex seems like a piece of work. A valid lesson not to date crazy people, clearly.
Click to expand...
::in talk show host voice:: Paul's a sagittarius and in his spare time he likes to boil bunnies.

Taake said:
Why sue Grindr though and not the ex? More money to get from the first?
Click to expand...
Sueing Grindr as they did/do nothing to prevent this from happening. Supposedly there is little security in place and that anyone can make an account pretending to be anyone else. It is, or could be, a big case and have ripples through many forms of social media.
 
Mr. Pole said:
::in talk show host voice:: Paul's a sagittarius and in his spare time he likes to boil bunnies.


Sueing Grindr as they did/do nothing to prevent this from happening. Supposedly there is little security in place and that anyone can make an account pretending to be anyone else. It is, or could be, a big case and have ripples through many forms of social media.
Click to expand...

A Sagittarius you say? Well, it's good to have hobbies... I think I'll give Paul a chance!

Ah, I see, that makes sense. And the idea of that ripple effect made this case more interesting!
 
Taake said:
Ah, I see, that makes sense. And the idea of that ripple effect made this case more interesting!
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Well, they said the other dating site he tried it on blocked his IP address as it had more than one listing. It's really interesting. Just as this site checks to see if multiple identities are registered from the same IP address, it seems such a basic, perfunctory form of security was not done by that site. Makes you wonder about sites like youtube, twitter and facebook then. How many trolls that comment on some things are in fact the same troll with multiple accounts all talking to themselves?
 
Mr. Pole said:
How many trolls that comment on some things are in fact the same troll with multiple accounts all talking to themselves?
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Oh, I've seen that loads on Facebook. Especially in Facebook groups with lots of drama, to incite even more drama. People making multiple accounts to report other people's photos and stuff like that.
 
GwenRaiden said:
Oh, I've seen that loads on Facebook. Especially in Facebook groups with lots of drama, to incite even more drama. People making multiple accounts to report other people's photos and stuff like that.
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I am not on the faces book enough to notice. I am sure Twitter and YouTube it happens often though. Facebook has its own different set of problems.
 
I'm suddenly curious what Grindr would do if this guy didn't sue them, but instead started to put up fake personal profiles and ads for the owners. I bet Grindr would suddenly discover the ability to put a stop to it through both their personal efforts combined with legal action (though probably wouldn't care about anyone else).
 
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