Spaces: A New Social Media Platform for LGBTQ Community

Queers, rejoice! Spaces, created by Queer Spaces Inc., has just dropped as a social media platform made and curated for the LGBTQ community. Hosted by Hornet Network Inc, Spaces follows its predecessor, Hornet, in terms of users. Hornet currently has more than 35 million users, with Spaces coming up by surpassing 100,000 daily active users and continuing to grow.

According to the description in the Apple App Store, “Spaces is a group chat-based platform for queer people to connect over topics they are passionate about, discover new interests, schedule meetups, and hang out.” It goes on to state that, at its core, the app is meant to build community, encouraging “fun, engaging, and free-flowing conversations with like-minded, LGBTQ+ people, who are tired of being harassed on other, more heteronormative, social media platforms.”

Sixty-four percent of LGBTQ people have been harassed online, with 84% simply feeling unsafe. The numbers speak for themselves: Other social media platforms are not doing enough to keep us safe.

LGBTQ people are the most harassed demographic on most social media platforms today, with the harassment increasing if the individual is BIPOC. With this social media platform, safety is Spaces’ foremost priority, as one of their articles on the statistics of LGBTQ harassment in other social media sites says, “Among the 10 points of the app’s Safety Pledge are guarantees to combat hate, harassment, and abusive behavior; to keep users’ physical safety, health, and well-being as a top priority; and to only rely on technology that does not exploit or unfairly treat LGBTQ people and other vulnerable communities.”

Spaces has been largely reviewed as a positive social media platform, featuring as Apple’s App of the Day and boasting a current rating of 4.2 on the App Store.

Shon Washington, creator and moderator of many different online communities within Spaces, says, “Particularly over the last few years, the big social media platforms have become toxic pits of hate and harassment, with the bulk of that harassment being directed to LGBTQ+ people of color. So it’s nice to see a new platform far removed from that negativity. I’ve had nothing but positive interactions with other queer people on Spaces something I didn’t know would even be possible anymore.”

Spaces is available for download on iOS, with an Android version coming soon!