The role of “far-right manosphere influencers” in fuelling homophobic attacks where victims were lured through fake dating app profiles before being assaulted will be investigated by a Victorian parliamentary inquiry.
Aiv Puglielli, the Greens’ equality spokesperson, on Wednesday moved a motion calling on the upper house’s legal and social issues committee to investigate the scale of such crimes, as well as the state’s current response and support available to victims.
It follows what Puglielli described as a “disturbing” and “terrifying” series of attacks targeting gay and bisexual men across several states and territories since 2024. In some instances, videos of the attacks have been recorded and posted on social media.
As of October 2024, 35 people had been arrested in relation to such incidents, Victoria police confirmed in a statement to Guardian Australia.
Police said the alleged offenders – most aged between 13 and 20 – had used fake profiles on dating apps to lure their victims.
“The victims are then allegedly assaulted, robbed, threatened and subjected to homophobic comments,” a police spokesperson said.
“There is absolutely no place for this type of concerning behaviour in our society.”
In the past year, Guardian Australia has reported on attacks on men organised through dating apps, with Victoria police confirming that anti-LGBTQ+ influencers had been promoting “methods of attack” online.
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During the June 2025 sentencing of a 19-year-old Victorian man who met and assaulted two people after speaking to them on the gay dating app Grindr, the court heard he admitted to police he had been inspired by vigilante-style videos he had seen on TikTok.
Puglielli said the inquiry would examine how influencers sharing far-right, misogynistic and homophobic “alpha male” content operate online, and how to protect young people from their messaging.
He alleged some perpetrators, often very young men, had been “groomed and radicalised by far-right manosphere influencers”.
“This is dark-corner-of-the-internet stuff, largely going on in the shadows,” Puglielli said.
“We really have to get to the bottom of these issues. How are people being radicalised? What type of content are they consuming that eventually leads them to commit these terrible acts?”
Puglielli said such online networks were growing “quicker than our laws seem to be able to keep up”.
“As a queer person and as a member of parliament, I don’t have all the answers,” he said. “But complexity can’t be an excuse to ignore the problem.”
Puglielli said it was his expectation that dating apps would be called to appear before the inquiry, alongside policymakers and police.
He added that the inquiry could make recommendations to the commonwealth if matters fall outside the state’s jurisdiction.
The motion passed 22 votes to 15, with support from MPs from the Legalise Cannabis and Animal Justice parties, as well as the Labor government. The Labor MP Michael Galea successfully moved an amendment to change the terms of reference of the inquiry, including to investigate the “role and responsibilities of social media and digital platform owners in preventing and responding to anti-LGBTIQA+ hate crimes”.
The Coalition failed to broaden the scope of the inquiry to also cover multicultural and antisemitic crimes, then voted against the final bill – a move Galea said was “an insult to the victims” of gay hate crimes.
The government’s equality minister, Vicki Ward, said the Liberal party had turned “their backs on the LGBTIQA+ community”.
“Attempting to block the anti-LGBTIQA+ hate crimes parliamentary inquiry is a betrayal – this is about improving safety, protecting people and better understanding what contributes to these heinous crimes,” she said.
“Instead, the Liberals prefer divisive political games.”
Ward said the government had strengthened anti-vilification and bail laws and had criminalised “posting and boasting”, while LGBTQ+ community members also met the premier’s anti-hate taskforce last year.
The committee will be required to report by 1 September, giving the government enough time to respond before the caretaker period ahead of the November state election.
