Online Misinformation taps into the financial vulnerabilities of the LBQT+ community in India

“Many people in my circles have received SMS ads that say [you can] earn Rs.50000 working from home,” Observes Varsha*, a young queer professional working at a local NGO. All of us recognise it as a scam. Being able to recognise these scams is a matter of privilege that many young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds don’t have. They wanted to apply for these jobs,” they say. Disinformation constitutes sharing of false information with the malicious intent of causing harm of some kind, while misinformation is false information that is shared due to lack of awareness or by mistake. “We [at the NGO] decided to do an online poster campaign to educate the girls about these scams. Others from economically marginalised backgrounds often fall prey to these messages because they are unaware and in need of money,” Varsha says. 

Many amongst the LBQT+ community are among some of the most-disadvantaged communities in India, making them susceptible to similar disinformation campaigns. The vulnerabilities and risks are higher for those of them living with multiple identities of marginalisation like gender identity, sexual orientation, caste, religion, class, disability, among others. They also continue to be on the wrong side of the digital divide, and often fall prey to targeted financial frauds and scams that employ disinformation. The financial vulnerabilities of LBQT+ persons tends to be higher as they often run away from home due to the rejection by their families towards their sexuality and gender identity. In many cases, the signature of family members is required to gain access to bank accounts that were opened while the LBQT+ individuals were still minors. 

LBQ+ persons struggle to access economic benefits like bank loans, while for transgender persons, this struggle extends to also opening a bank account due to the difficulties in changing their name and gender on their identification documents.

The Supreme Court of India decriminalised homosexuality in 2018. In 2023, it ruled against marriage equality for LGBTQIA+ communities. However, the court directed the state to create systemic provisions for better inclusion of the community in society. The lack of equal rights for queer and transgender persons means lack of access to equal economic resources and opportunities like ration cards, owning assets together, insurance benefits and joint bank accounts as enjoyed by married (typically heterosexual) couples, thus creating more room for exploitation that extends to digital channels. 

Consequently, several ministries passed government orders for the inclusion of queer and transgender persons, including opening joint bank accounts nominating a person in a queer relationship as nominee, allowing partners in a queer relationship to be included on the same ration card, among others. However, implementation of these circulars remains to be seen. Dr. L.Ramakrishnan, a public health professional and Vice President, SAATHII, a non-profit working with LGBTQIA+ communities across India says, “When the Union Government announced that queer couples could avail of ration cards, bureaucrats associated with the Tamil Nadu government wondered what proof of the relationship such couples would be able to provide with their application for ration cards. By demanding proof of relationships, the government sidesteps the question of real inclusion of queer persons.” Applying for and accessing ration cards may also be particularly challenging for individuals who have previously been part of their natal family’s ration card and have run away from home.

The lack of equal rights for queer and transgender persons means lack of access to equal economic resources and opportunities.

Further, there is a latent invisibilisation of LBQ+ women within the state welfare system. "Even within the welfare schemes that address LGBTQIA+ community, LBQ+ women are invisiblised. Largely financial inclusion and schemes are for transgender persons and for gay men. LBQ women are [mostly] invisible,” he adds. This invisiblisation adds another layer of misinformation about the needs and struggles of LBQ+ persons due to erasure within different public systems even with supposed legal/policy action for their inclusion, inhibiting their access to financial resources.

Digitalisation of financial services

The use of digital payments in India increased with demonetisation in 2016. It was initiated to purge unaccounted cash in the country. However it led to increased economic challenges for marginalised communities including but not limited to transgender persons and persons with disabilities. Lack of valid identification documents, inaccessible processes, and the general absence of support and information to include them contributed to systemic exclusions and misinformation around processes. 

Retrospectively, demonetisation was seen as a move to set the ball rolling towards digital adoption and a cashless economy in India. Even with the regulatory efforts of the Reserve Bank of India for consumer protection while using digital payments and digital lending apps, there remains an information gap and lack of awareness among the end users. As of September 2024, Reserve Bank of India’s Digital Payment Index (DPI) that measures the growth and adoption of digital payments in the country stands at 465.33, up from 100 in March 2018. Despite the adoption rate, anecdotal evidence suggests that communities like LBQT+ persons are still unaware of the ways to safely navigate the digital payment methods.

Although the vulnerabilities are higher among LBQT+ persons, their awareness levels about data privacy, targeted disinformation campaigns and the available recourse to address these digital finance issues remain limited. "The primary concern of LBQT+ persons tends to be about the disclosure of their identity. They primarily understand breach of privacy only from the lens of their gender identity and sexual orientation, not so much from the perspective of data privacy,” explains Dr. L.Ramakrishnan while talking about the common understanding of privacy within LBQT+ community.

Unreliable Alternatives to institutional support

The LBQT persons, especially transgender persons, find it hard to secure jobs due to lack of valid identification documents that match their name and gender. Owing to the lack of support from their natal families and the absence of adequate formal financial options and resources like insurance to support their gender affirmative care and other expenditure, LBQT+ persons are often forced to procure loans from unreliable digital lending apps at exorbitant rates of interest. The debtors are subject to undue harassment by the creditors, often threatened with disinformation tactics like sharing morphed pornographic images of the debtors with all their WhatsApp contacts. Once installed, these loan apps gain access to the media files, storage and contacts on the debtor’s phone. A source who wishes to remain anonymous, shares that in late 2024, “A trans person was threatened by the loan app using morphed images that were shared with their contacts, forcing the person to attempt suicide.” There have been several such instances of targeted disinformation in recent years amongst the public at large to scam people of their money.

The debtors are subject to undue harassment by the creditors, often threatened with disinformation tactics like sharing morphed pornographic images of the debtors with all their WhatsApp contacts.

There are other scams that display ads for loans on Instagram. On clicking these ads, users are directed to a specific WhatsApp account. In this case, the individual is expected to pay a certain amount of money as processing fee to avail the loan. “Out of desperation for money, people end up making repeated payments but never get the loan,” explain the team at Raahi sharing their experience of supporting individuals who have fallen prey to these loan scams. Many others also lose their money through the games on payment apps, which are designed to function akin to gambling. In 2023, the Government of India banned 581 apps, including 174 betting and gambling apps and 87 loan lending apps, along with others. 

While digital lending app scams have been prevalent and ongoing for several years now, the vulnerabilities faced by LBQT+ persons is far higher due to their existing marginalisation and vulnerabilities. In 2023, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shared a list of digital lending apps with app stores requesting them to ensure that only the listed apps are hosted on their app stores. However, Raahi team suggests that there continues to be disinformation and misinformation regarding RBI approved money lending apps as well as banned apps in the market. “LBQT+ community members are generally unaware of the list of apps that are banned. They don’t have easy access to this information,” they note. The information about these developments have not percolated among the masses - the most affected by such apps.

As an alternative source of finance, transgender persons are also often forced to crowdfund to support their gender affirming care. Use of digital platforms to raise funds or gain employment also subjects them to targeted gender-based violence. Soumya, a queer content creator working on disability rights shares, “When crowdfunding, transgender persons are often ridiculed and judged, especially by privileged cisgender men for asking for money. In one such instance, a Dalit trans person with health issues and an unwell mother was ridiculed for crowdfunding without any consideration for their mental health struggles and challenges with accessing healthcare.” This is often the experience of Dalit queer and transgender persons who face excessive discrimination due to their caste identity in addition to their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Targeted Queerphobia and Transphobia as Disinformation

There has been an increase in online sex work post-COVID-19. Subsequently, there was a surge of cyber harassment and bullying faced by sex workers. Respondents of the 2023 study that I conducted, Gendering of Development Data in India: Post-Trans Act 2019, observed a pattern of clients recording the videos of sex workers and threatening to release them online when sex workers demanded payment for their services. Many have absconded without making a payment. Due to fear of being outed and harassed, these cases remain unreported perpetuating misinformation about the available recourse for those at the margins. This also extends to dating apps like Grindr where instances of catfishing, data breaches, extortion and violence are also common. Despite sex work being decriminalised by the Supreme Court of India, sex workers continue to face these challenges. 

Different messaging apps like Telegram are also used for sex work. Jaya, General Manager at Sahodaran, a Chennai-based non-profit working with the LGBTQIA+ community says, “According to trans women sex workers that we work with, some of these apps require spending on [expensive] ads to get clients. And if someone leaves a bad review about their services, then it is visible for everyone else to see. This impacts their business.” While these comments seem like authentic reviews of their work, they also tend to be targeted, and project malicious transphobic behaviour that perpetuates disinformation impacting their livelihood. With the existing transphobia in online spaces and social media platforms, it is common for transgender persons to be abused and harassed. Queer content creator, Soumya observes that the usual slurs used to target trans feminine persons, like chakka and hijra, are used quite casually.

Due to fear of being outed and harassed, these cases remain unreported perpetuating misinformation about the available recourse for those at the margins.

LBQT+ persons also face other kinds of targeted online abuse that makes it hard for them to be present in online spaces and be honest about their gender identity and sexual orientation. “Snowflake [as a term] is used in a derogatory manner for being too sensitive. I commented on a post when a person asked, are you blind. I asked them if it was necessary to use ableist language to talk about it. Even feminist progressive people targeted me for asking that question. People don’t know or don’t want to learn,” Soumya adds, sharing her personal experience of being targeted online.

Disinformation erasing LBQT+ realities

Digital platforms allow LBQT+ persons to exist anonymously. Hence most often, they navigate the consequences of disinformation rooted in queer/transphobia by self-censoring themselves, rather than directly countering the malicious information they are targeted with or reporting it to concerned authority because they fear being outed. Self-censorship is a part of the strategy for many others from these communities and for those working to support them. Talking about how LBQT+ persons are dealing with the disinformation against them and other marginalised communities, Soumya says, “People are self-censoring the words that they are using. I have also closed all my social media accounts. Nothing is public except Linkedin. I have seen others who have also done this,” she adds. After the takeover [of Twitter by Elon Musk], the policies have gone haywire. There are even porn bots on the site.” Despite the increase in violence, the recourse available on social media platforms tend to be limited. The lack of accountability from dating and social media apps as well as absence of adequate support from the police to counter these issues makes it harder for this community.

The existing vulnerabilities are exacerbated by the lack of access to digital and financial literacy. Jaya from Sahodaran says, “Only the few attending any community digital security training programmes have some understanding about addressing these issues. And then there are others who have learnt from experience. But the rest don’t know about these digital threats or the ways to handle them.” Jaya says that even with the existence of a cybercrime department, it is not feasible for all to access support. “Besides, the cybercrime team is relatively small within each police station because their main focus is law and order,” she shares.

There is also a considerable lack of clarity and a degree of misinformation regarding the available legal recourse to address digital frauds and harassment faced by the LBQT+ community. Even amongst those who have the awareness about financial threats and scams on different platforms, the stigma surrounding their sexual orientation and gender identity serves the purpose of disinformation, acting as a barrier for individuals to take action against their perpetrators. This lack of action limits the information available to others who may be vulnerable to different kinds of economic risks, reinforcing the hetero-patriarchal and anti-gender agenda asserting specific ideas of gender identities, roles and expression. Thus the present-day economic and financial system in its current design makes those with existing vulnerabilities easy targets for its disinformation and misinformation campaign and ensures that they remain marginalised.