After a series of concerning homophobic attacks in Melbourne, The Victorian Greens are demanding answers.
In October of 2024, 30 men were arrested. Most of them aged between 13-20, all had used dating apps to lure gay and bisexual men to a covert meeting location, only to allegedly physically and verbally assault, rob and film them.
In June 2025, a 19-year-old Victorian man admitted he had used the gay dating app Grindr to lure two men and then assault them.
During his sentencing, he alleged videos on Tik Tok of others doing the same had inspired him, thinking of it as vigilante action.
This now leads Aiv Puglielli, a member of Victorian council, to question if online anti-LGBTQIA+ influencers and hate groups are using footage of the attacks for content and to influence others to copy them.
Victoria Police has confirmed that these “methods of attack” have been shared online by anti-LGBTQ+ influencers.
Puglielli and the Victorian Greens are calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the role such groups have played in the spate of attacks.
In a statement released today, Puglielli said “this doesn’t come out of nowhere.
We know there’s a “manosphere” of anti-queer influences and far-right “alpha-male” networks that are grooming and radicalising young men online, building these hate networks.”
This comes in a recent wave of “red-pilling”, a term borrowed from The Matrix which is now used to describe the process of radicalisation people, often young men, go through on the Internet.
More than ever before, young men are becoming radicalised by fringes of the Internet spewing violent misogyny, homophobia, racism and extremist ideas.
Included in these pockets of hate are incels, men’s rights activists, and content creators like Andrew Tate.
The inquiry seeks to understand how these groups operate and teach others to enact hate crimes.
It would also examine existing prevention methods for these crimes and what support exists for victims.
As internet hate continues to rise, the inquiry comes at a crucial time for the Queer community.
“We need to get to the root of this,” says Puglielli, “Enough is enough”.
