INTO Opens LA Production Studio for LGBTQ Creators

Grindr’s year-old magazine INTO is offering a distribution outlet for LGBTQ creators whose videos may be penalised by platforms which have a history of mistaking content featuring LGBTQ slang for hate speech.

INTO has now opened a production studio in West Hollywood, Los Angeles that LGBTQ creators, advertisers and other media companies can use to produce videos.

The studio will support the LGBTQ creators and provide a more cost-efficient supply of videos.

INTO is also planning to use the studio to produce videos for advertisers, who will pay the publisher for production and distribution.

INTO’s production studio will offer free space and equipment for creators. This is similar to how YouTube offers its various YouTube Spaces around the world.

Creators will be asked to email their video pitches to editors, who then assess the ideas and book the shoot.

INTO will then distribute the videos on its own website and social accounts such as Facebook and YouTube.

Grindr’s chief content officer and INTO’s editor-in-chief said: “Generally, most content we create would be made with our ownership of the [intellectual property] because it’s living on our site, but we would be open to negotiating that. It’s been an issue in the past few years where LGBT content gets flagged on YouTube and Facebook for being inappropriate — and understandably so.

“A lot of these algorithms haven’t understood the fact that like ‘queer’ isn’t always a negative thing, or to call someone ‘gay’ isn’t always negative. It’s really contextual.”

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