Female-only chat app Giggle investigated by Australian Human Rights Commission

A female-only chat app using face recognition technology to admit members faces a Human Rights Commission investigation.

A female-only chat group that uses facial recognition software to screen new members is being dragged to the Australian Human Rights Commission to explain why it won’t allow men who identify as women to join.

But the founder of the social networking app Giggle, Sall Grover, says the whole point of the group is to have a “safe space for women” away from men.

Ms Grover, a former Hollywood screenwriter now Gold Coast mum-to-be, is facing an

investigation by the human rights body.

Giggle, a social media app for women.

App founder Sall Grover.

Her popular app uses AI facial recognition computer software to recognise female faces to admit new members, on top of screening by the human eye. More than 15,000 women from 88 countries have joined the platform since it started in 2020.

But Ms Grover, who says she wants to help women after experiencing sexual harassment in Hollywood, was told by the commission a complaint of “gender identity discrimination” had been made by transgender woman Roxanne Tickle.

The AHRC told her if she allowed Ms Tickle to join the app and “all other people that identify as female”, and ­undergo “education” about sex, gender and gender identity the complaint will be dropped. Otherwise the case could be taken to the Federal Court.

“What I find quite chilling is the Australian Human Rights Commission is sending me something basically saying I need to be re-educated,” Ms Grover said.

“That, to me, is the scandal. I am already well educated about this, I just don’t believe in gender ideology.”

Liberal Senator Claire Chandler.

She says female-only gyms and pools exist, and men have male-only Men’s Sheds, but she gets men from all over the world constantly trying to join the app every day.

“Women are entitled to have a place to connect and chat online and have fun away from the male gaze,” she said.

“What the Human Rights Commission is basically suggesting is that it’s not my or any other woman’s human right to congregate away from males.”

Liberal Senator Claire Chandler blasted the situation, saying everyday Australians were being punished for objecting to males being in female spaces such as bathrooms or sports teams.

“We are seeing a full on authoritarian attack on the rights of Australian women to set our own boundaries and speak about our own rights,” she said.

“If you speak about the importance of single-sex services and spaces for women and girls you are subjected to appalling abuse and threats online – just as Sall has been – and then forced to face legal complaints and pressure from authorities to bow down to those threats.

“The result is that women and young girls are being forced to accept sharing women’s spaces with males and being pressured to stay silent, even when they feel threatened or unable to use those spaces because of that.”

The AHRC said it had “no comment” when questioned about the issue.
Last year, the AHRC was forced into an embarrassing backdown after it was forced to pull a $140,000 tender that would have seen taxpayer funds used to promote the idea that Australia is “structurally and institutionally racist”.
A month later they resurfaced the idea with a plan for an advertising campaign promoting the idea that Australia is fundamentally racist – and they wanted to feature some of the nation’s biggest sporting stars, who would have been expected to work for free.

Originally published as Female-only chat app Giggle investigated by Australian Human Rights Commission