Homophobic ambush attacks: a rising phenomenon facilitated by dating apps
According to France Info, a homophobic ambush attack occurs every four days in France in 2025. Authorities are warning of the growing role of dating applications.
Dating applications, new hunting ground for homophobic attackers
A homophobic ambush attack every four days in France in 2025: this is the figure revealed by the latest report from the association SOS Homophobie, published on 11 May, as reported by France Info. Victims believe they are going to a romantic or sexual meeting, only to find themselves attacked, sometimes killed.
Dating applications play a central role in this development. It is now enough for attackers to create a pseudonym and use a fake photograph to target their victim. The Central Office for Combating Hate Crimes, directed by Colonel Nicolas Philippotin, has identified these platforms as a major vector for these attacks.
"The platforms make it easier to organise and track victims," explains Philippotin. "Whereas previously, you had to go to a meeting place. That was more difficult. You could be detected, whereas now, you can organise your attack plan at leisure." He describes the phenomenon as "a form of game" for the perpetrators: "Succeeding in attracting someone, pulling off your stratagem. It's not that complicated."
Dark figure difficult to measure
The phenomenon tends to be increasing, but no official count exists. Philippotin acknowledges that it is very "difficult" to quantify, notably because of a significant number of victims who do not file complaints. "The most serious incidents are known about because, often, there are hospitalisations. When doctors see people arriving as victims of assault, there is treatment. Nevertheless, there is underreporting of incidents," he notes. It is therefore "difficult to say there are more than before," he adds.
The aggravating circumstance of homophobia rarely upheld
The other major obstacle lies in the difficulty of qualifying these acts legally as homophobic. Lawyer Étienne Deshoulières observes this reluctance on a recurring basis among magistrates. He cites a case in which he is soon to intervene: the perpetrators had admitted to targeting people on the social network Coco precisely because they were homosexual. "Despite this, the prosecutor's office and the investigating judge did not uphold the aggravating circumstance of homophobia," he laments.
Deshoulières reports two justifications that are regularly presented to him. The first: "It is very difficult to know what is going on in the mind of the perpetrator." The second: "There are already enough aggravating circumstances for the maximum sentence to be life imprisonment, and therefore there is no need to establish the aggravating circumstance of homophobia."
This judicial practice has the direct effect of rendering the phenomenon invisible, according to the lawyer. It consequently limits, in his view, collective awareness and the political responses that could result from it.
Source: France Info