Grindr has developed new community guidelines as it sets out to combat issues such as racism, femme-phobia, transphobia, sizeism and status-shaming on the app.

Speaking about the new campaign, Grindr’s head of communications, Landen Zumwalt said, “Sexual racism, transphobia, fat and femme shaming and further forms of othering such as stigmatization of HIV positive individuals are pervasive problems in the LGBTQ community.”

Zumwalt went on to explain, “These community issues get brought onto our platform, and as a leader in the gay dating space, Grindr has a responsibility to not only protect our user but also to set the standard for the broader community that we serve.”

Meanwhile, Grindr’s editor-in-chief Zach Stafford said, “Like many of us, I was a user of Grindr before I started working here, so I was already familiar with the racism and issues faced by people of colour or non-masculine identifying people on the app.

“I joined Grindr because I saw an opportunity for the company to be a leader and social change agent.”

Stafford announced the news in a tweet:

For years, the app Grindr has seen racism, transphobia, HIV stigma and so much else run unchecked. And today, we begin to try to end that.

Meet our new Kindr initiative — a movement that uses content and policy… https://t.co/H3cEZueJaQ

— Zach Stafford (@ZachStafford) September 18, 2018

The app published their new community guidelines online, which state:

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination, harassment, and abusive behaviour. We want you to be yourself, but not at the expense of someone else. Anyone found bullying, threatening, or defaming another user will be banned.”

The statement goes on to say, “We will also remove any discriminatory statements displayed on profiles. You’re free to express your preferences, but we’d rather hear about what you’re into, not what you aren’t. Profile language that is used to openly discriminate against other users’ traits and characteristics will not be tolerated and will be subject to review by our moderation team.”

Josh Rivers of UK Black Pride welcomed Grindr’s new anti-discrimination strategy, telling Attitude Magazine, “Our movement depends on those in positions of power, those who can influence, doing what they must to ensure racism, sexism, misogyny, transphobia and all forms of bullying are eradicated and we are impressed with the work spearheaded by Zach Stafford and his team.”

Rivers added, “But this is not Grindr’s responsibility alone. While we are encouraged that Grindr is taking this step, we — as a community — must continue to fight for those most marginalised, create safe spaces for us and by us, and lead by example.

“Grindr’s new initiative means we now have one more tool in our battle and one more much-needed safe space.”

The app also released their first in a series of videos about the issue of discrimination.

This news comes after Grindr found themselves in hot water after it was discovered that the app has a major security flaw. Developers of a similar app F*cker found that their users could track down the exact location of Grindr users, raising serious questions about user’s safety and privacy.