Authorities are “weaponizing dating, messaging, and social media apps to persecute” LGBTQ+ people in the Middle East and North Africa, new research by a coalition of digital and human rights groups has found.

Based on information gleaned from 15 focus groups, 93 in-depth interviews, more than 4,000 surveys and two major “community convenings,” the research engaged more than 5,200 people. The project, which was led by digital rights organization Article 19, focused on the experiences of queer people living in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia. 

Half of LGBTQ+ people interviewed said police had seized their devices, including to “verify their queerness.” All 98 interviewees with biometrics enabled on their devices who had at some point been held by police said violence was used to force them to open their phones.

Researchers also found that:

• 23% of survey and interview participants said they had been entrapped by police via Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram, as opposed to just dating apps

• 100% of sex worker, trans, and queer refugee participants reported police abuse and had the highest arrest rates of all survey participants

• A quarter of survey respondents and 65% of interviewees said they had been physically abused or harassed by police, with seven reporting they had been raped by “state-affiliated persons”

• Police searched or tried to forcibly access the devices of nearly all respondents who were subjected to law enforcement interviews

• Authorities used “entrapment-style luring” to steal money or force sexual favors, according to 53 LGBTQ+ interview or survey respondents 

• Slightly more than half of those interviewed said their pleas to tech companies to help stop the harassment were ignored “even in the most extreme situations”

Researchers focused heavily on how crucial safety features included in apps and other tech products are to the lives of queer people in MENA countries.

They called on technology companies to update their infrastructure to enhance user privacy and change product features to lessen the chance of arrests and device checks designed to monitor queer people’s digital activity.

Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents said they decide whether to use an app or platform based on safety features designed to protect their privacy, and for some “they were the difference between being imprisoned and being released.”

App cloaking, a technique which allows users to hide apps on their phones, had been used by 45% of participants and 26% of those surveyed reported using timed messages which disappear.

Stories from interview participants portray a harrowing level of abuse in the region. Police hit one queer interviewee with ‘whips’ to force them to give access to their device, according to the report.

A trans woman in Lebanon told researchers she was among a group of victims who were beaten with belts and sticks and held in solitary confinement while police searched the contents of their phones.

In addition to insults and beatings, police cut the transgender women’s hair, a victim reported, describing how one of them “had long hair, but when she got out, she was bald.’

The project was a collaboration with the freedom of expression advocacy group The De|Center and supported by Human Rights Watch, Access Now, Amnesty Tech and Electronic Frontier Foundation.