Lebanon's LGBTQ community faces digital exploitation, blackmail
Lebanon's LGBTQ community is being targeted through social media platforms and dating apps, and the perpetrators are acting with impunity.
BEIRUT — Lebanon's LGBTQ community is no longer safe online, as its members have become a target of both security officers and private individuals seeking to exploit them.
In a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week, the human rights organization documented extensive cases of digital targeting of the LGBTQ community through interviews with 90 people in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Tunisia.
Rasha Younes, the senior LGBTQ rights researcher at HRW, said that security forces across these countries have been monitoring social media and digital platforms and persecuting members of the community based on their online activity.
"This has not only led to crackdowns on organizing around LGBTQ rights, but also [has led] to the outing of LGBTQ individuals and blackmailing them online," Younes told Al-Monitor.
