Met on an App: How LGBTQ+ Ugandans Are Being Trapped, and How to Stay Safer

For many LGBTQ+ Ugandans, apps and social media are among the few places left to meet people. Since the Anti-Homosexuality Act came into force in 2023, they have also become one of the main places where danger starts.

In January 2026, the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) reported that most victims of arrests, violence and threats it had dealt with had first met the people who harmed them on social media or dating apps. Many were robbed or extorted once they met in person.

This guide sets out how these traps work, the signs to look for, and what to do if it happens to you. No advice can make an app completely safe, and if you are targeted, it is not your fault. As the digital rights group Access Now puts it, the responsibility “rests with governments and companies”, not with the people being hunted.

How the traps work

The documented cases fall into a few patterns.

Police entrapment. Someone creates a fake profile on a dating app or social media, builds trust, and arranges to meet. When the target arrives, police are waiting. Access Now reviewed 17 such cases and found that police then searched phones to find other people; in one case, a second person was arrested because police suspected he was the first man’s partner. Human Rights Watch has also documented police posing as LGBTQ+ people on Grindr and releasing people only after they paid bribes.

Extortion gangs. A 2025 report by Freedom and Roam Uganda, Icebreakers Uganda and Tranz Network Uganda found attackers using fake profiles to lure people, then beating or robbing them and demanding money not to out them to their families or village leaders. Some work with police.

One alleged ring shows how organised this can be. In September 2025, police arrested a man known as “Morris”, whose network the Uganda Minority Shelters Consortium linked to more than 150 cases of extortion, blackmail, torture and arrest over three years. He reportedly used Grindr, Planet Romeo and Tinder, researched his targets’ families and jobs, and about 40% of his alleged victims were targeted more than once.

Mobs and filming. Some meetings end with a crowd, a beating and a phone camera. We have written about how these videos spread and why people film them.

People you know. The same 2025 report found that blackmailers are often people the victim already knows.

Warning signs

Be cautious if someone:

• has a new profile with few details, or photos that look professional or too perfect
• will not do a video call, or keeps finding reasons to delay one
• pushes to meet quickly, or to move the conversation off the app to WhatsApp or another platform
• insists on a place they choose, especially a house, guesthouse, remote spot or late at night
• asks early on for explicit photos, your full name, where you work or where you live
• tells a story that does not match their other social media
• asks you for money, or offers to arrange your transport

None of these proves someone is dangerous. Several together should make you stop.

Before you meet anyone

• Video call first. Both Grindr and Access Now recommend this. If they refuse, do not meet.
• Check their photos. A reverse image search can show whether the pictures belong to someone else.
• Keep the chat on the app until you trust the person. Share your phone number later, not sooner.
• Assume anything you send can be shared. Avoid sending photos that show your face, your home or anything that identifies you.
• Choose the place yourself. Somewhere public, in daylight, that you know.
• Control your own transport, and keep your phone charged.
• Tell someone you trust where you are going, share the person’s profile with them, and agree a time to check in.
• Carry only what you need. Robbery is common in these cases.

Protect your phone

In many of these cases, the phone is what turns one arrest into several. Police and blackmailers search it for chats, photos and contacts.

• Lock your phone with a PIN or password, and lock your apps where you can. Grindr has a PIN lock and a “discreet icon” that disguises the app as something else.
• Turn off “show distance”. Grindr notes that others may still estimate how close you are from where you appear in the grid.
• Use disappearing messages, and regularly delete chats and photos you no longer need.
• Do not link your social media accounts to your dating profile.
• Avoid public Wi-Fi when using dating apps.

Our free Digital armour kit explains how to secure your devices and messaging step by step.

If it happens to you

If you are being blackmailed:

• Stop contact, and do not send more photos or money in the hope it will end. Paying often leads to more demands; many of “Morris’s” alleged victims were targeted again.
• Keep a record of the profile name, phone numbers and messages, stored somewhere safe, not on a phone that may be searched.
• Contact a legal aid organisation such as HRAPF (+256 414 530683, [email protected]), or contact us and we will help you find support.
• Report the profile to the app. Grindr asks for incidents that happened outside the app to be reported to [email protected].

Think carefully before going to the police alone. In the “Morris” case, victims who reported him often found that he was released within a day while they themselves faced arrest.

If you are arrested:

• Under Uganda’s Constitution, you have the right to be told why you are being held, to have access to a lawyer, and to be brought before a court within 48 hours. Human Rights Watch has found people held for longer, so ask for a lawyer and for your family or a friend to be told where you are.
• Make a plan in advance. Grindr suggests giving a trusted friend the details they would need to contact support organisations and close your accounts if you are detained.

If you have been hurt, get medical care as soon as you can, and contact us or a support organisation so you are not dealing with it alone.

It is not your fault

Wanting to meet someone is not a crime, and being targeted is not a failure on your part. The people setting these traps are responsible for them, and so are any police officers who work with them. The companies whose apps are being used also need to do more to protect people in countries like Uganda.

Until they do, look after yourself and each other. If you need to talk to someone, we are here.