On March 27 in St. Petersburg a 54-year-old journalist Dmitry Tsilikinin was killed in his apartment. The killer turned out to be 21-year-old student Sergey Kosirev, who whilst under interrogation explained his reason for committing the murder. He said it was a special mission to clean the world of homosexuals. Still, under Russian law the murder was not classed as murder motivated by hatred.



On May 3 in Moscow another well-known journalist Alexander Rubtsov became a victim of murder. And again -- he was killed in his apartment.



It may sound crazy, but these men and other LGBT victims in Russia most often meet their attackers through apps such as Hornet or Grindr.



Public monitoring shows that almost everyday an LGBT person is being attacked in Russia. Already this year over 100 serious homophobic crimes have been committed in Russia.



In most cases what happens is that criminals posing as gay use apps like Hornet, Grindr and others to easily find victims, lure into their territory, beat them up, humiliate, blackmail them, threaten outing them, then plunder their houses and apartments to steal large amounts of money.



Evidence of these crimes are often posted on social networks afterwards.



Most bisexual and homosexual people do not think or know about the possible dangers they face when they use these apps. They don’t know how to behave in these situations, who and where to seek help and how to protect themselves.



That’s why we are appealing to Grindr and Hornet and asking you to set up automatic alerts to your Russian users notifying them about the attacks and giving them tips on how to stay safe.



We, the authors of the petition and other human rights activists, would be happy to help you draft the necessary tips and guides for users' safety for you, Grindr and Hornet, to distribute.