Facts

Grindr Inc. and Grindr LLC own and operate the Grindr App, which is a dating application for LGBTQ+ individuals. The app is free to download and use, and Grindr earns revenue by offering advertising and subscription services. Once a user signs up by providing an email address and verifying they are over eighteen years old, they create a profile and are shown other users that are nearby. Users that match with one another may privately direct message each other.

In 2019, John Doe, a 15-year-old child from Nova Scotia, Canada, installed the Grindr app. When signing up, Doe misrepresented his age as eighteen, and Grind did not verify his age. Over the next several days, Doe matched with, exchanged messages, and explicit photographs with four adult men on the app. Doe also met each man in person, and he was sexually assaulted.

Doe subsequently told his mother about using the app and the sexual assaults. The adult men were apprehended and imprisoned, and Doe filed a civil suit against Grindr.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Doe contended that Grindr marketed its app to minors; enabled children to create profiles on the app without their guardians' permission; connected them with adults for sexual encounters; and that this conduct led to Doe being raped four separate times by adult men. Doe contended that the app was defective because it regularly matched children with adults for unlawful sexual encounters, and he asserted causes of action for strict products liability based on defective design, defective manufacturing, and defective warning. Doe also contended that Grindr had been negligent; had negligently misrepresented the app's safety; and had engaged in sex trafficking of children.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS: The defendants denied any wrongdoing or liability. Moreover, the defendants contended they were immune from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Result

The court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss with prejudice based on Section 230 immunity.