Fact Check: Grindr Executive Really Said the RNC Is the 'Dating App's Super Bowl'?

Claim:

A Grindr executive said in mid-July 2024 that the Republican National Convention was "basically Grindr’s Super Bowl."

Rating:

Labeled Satire ( About this rating? )

On July 15, 2024, the X account The Halfway Post claimed an executive of Grindr said the Republican National Convention was the gay dating application's "Super Bowl."

The post had amassed more than 51.1 million views at the time of this writing.

X users replying to the post appeared to believe the claim, with one stating : "It's always been this way. They hit up male escorts, too."

Another wrote: "No doubt. Many Republican men are narcissistic and closeted gay while they act like they can't stand gay men. They hate themselves. I am a conservative woman, and this has been true in my experience with them."

However, this item was not a factual recounting of real-life events. The claim originated from the X account The Halfway Post , which described its output as satirical in nature, as follows:

Halfway true comedy and satire by @DashMacIntyre. I don't report the facts, I improve them.

On his X account , Dash MacIntyre described himself as a comedian who published "satirical Dada news."

MacIntyre also ran a website for The Halfway Post, where he was described as "a comedian, satirist, and poet from St. Louis" on the homepage. The "about" page on The Halfway Post's site said MacIntyre:

... created The Halfway Post in 2017 to publish halfway real Dada news and satire, and wrote enough about Donald Trump to publish his first book Satire In The Trump Years: The Best Of The Halfway Post available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. He is currently compiling a forthcoming Satire In The Biden Years.

An article from Raw Story stated former congressman George Santos shared the claim on X. Here's the video Santos posted on the social media platform:

It's unclear whether or not Santos based his claim on The Halfway Post's X post, but we've reached out to see if he has other evidence, although we've found no other statements or quotes on the subject other than the post in question. The article from Raw Story also referenced a video of an individual going through the dating app's feed at the RNC, which was in shared response to The Halfway Post.

Snopes previously debunked another satirical claim by The Halfway Post when it said a MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporter accidentally burned down their own home while trying to set fire to a Pride flag.

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.

Sources:

"About The Halfway Post." The Halfway Post , 23 May 2017, https://halfwaypost.com/about/. "Grindr Superbowl": Gay Ex-Lawmaker Exposes RNC amid Spike in Reported App Outages - Raw Story . https://www.rawstory.com/grindr-2668764731/. Accessed 18 July 2024. Hardinges, Nick. "MAGA Supporter Accidentally Burned Down Home While Setting Fire to Pride Flag?" Snopes , 14 June 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/maga-burns-house-pride/.