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Sall Grover

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Sall Grover
Born (1984-10-11) 11 October 1984 (age 41)
EducationBond University
OccupationsJournalist, writer, app developer
Known forCreating Giggle, a social media app for women

Sall Grover (born 11 October 1984)[1] is an Australian businesswoman. She was the founder of Giggle,[2] a now defunct female-only social media app.[3][4] Giggle was subject to a high-profile legal challenge known as Tickle vs Giggle when a transgender woman had her access to the app revoked.

Prior to creating Giggle, Grover worked in the film industry in Australia and in the United States as a production assistant and as a screenwriter.[5][6]

Giggle app

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In 2020, Grover founded Giggle for Girls, a mobile app designed as a social networking platform for women.[7] The name, Giggle, is described as a collective noun for women.[8] The app claimed to offer a safe online space for women to connect and find support in various areas such as finding roommates, freelancing, emotional support, and activism.[8][9] Grover has said she was driven to develop a digital platform for women by her desire to guard against the advances of predatory men, a view that was informed by her experience with misogyny and sexual violence.[10]

The app was particularly criticised for excluding transgender women.[11][12] To verify users' birth sex, it relied on technology developed by Kairos, a company that offers facial recognition software.[10][11] The software was criticised by Giggle users for failing to identify women of colour as female.[11] In response to criticism, Grover said that the exclusion of trans women was intentional, began self-identifying as a trans-exclusionary radical feminist,[11] and referred to trans women as "males".[13]

By 2021, the app reportedly had 20,000 users from 88 countries.[14][15]

Grover decided to shut down the app in July 2022.[16] She has alleged that transgender activists have sent numerous rape threats and death threats in relation to the app's membership policy.[17]

Tickle v Giggle

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Grover's efforts to create Giggle for Girls led to legal proceedings to determine the legality of the trans-exclusionary membership policies used on the platform.[18][19] The plaintiff, Roxanne Tickle, a transgender woman from New South Wales, also alleged that Grover had harassed her online after she complained about Giggle's policies.[20][21] In August 2024, the Federal Court of Australia found that Grover had contravened the Sex Discrimination Act by carrying out indirect discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and ordered "the app" and Grover to pay Tickle A$10,000 plus the legal costs of the plaintiff.[3][4][22] In May 2026, the Federal Court, on cross appeal, increased the damages award to A$20,000 and capped the costs of the plaintiff at A$50,000.[23]

Personal life and early career

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Grover grew up on the Gold Coast, Queensland.[24] She studied journalism and philosophy at Bond University.[25] She initially worked as a production assistant on a short 2005 film, The Vanished.[5] She then moved to work as an entertainment journalist—first in Australia, then the UK—before moving to Los Angeles to begin to work in the film industry as a screenwriter.[26] Grover collaborated with Australian screenwriter Emma Jensen who had also moved to Los Angeles.[27] Together they wrote a script for a romantic comedy film titled Sex on the First Date, and a novel, The LA Team, for the purpose of adapting to television.[28][27][6] After experiencing sexual harassment while working in the American film industry, Grover chose to return to Australia, having had none of her writing projects appear on screen.[16] Encouraged by her mother, she planned to build a social networking app for women.[15]

In July 2022, Grover gave birth to a daughter.[7][8] Following the birth of her daughter, Grover shared her experience of completing Australia's Medicare forms, where, instead of asking for a "mother's name" it used the gender neutral term "birthing parent".[29] After sharing her experience, the Minister for Government Services, Bill Shorten, reversed the department's naming policy to its previous position, as he wished to defuse public conflict.[30][31][32] Grover continues to live on the Gold Coast.[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Grover, Sall. "Sall Grover (Twitter)". Twitter (X).
  2. ↑ Also known as Giggle for Girls.
  3. 1 2 Bromwich, Robert. "FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA Tickle v Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd (No 2) [2024] FCA 960 SUMMARY" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Transgender woman's exclusion from female-only app was unlawful, judge finds". ABC News. 23 August 2024. Archived from the original on 24 August 2024. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  5. 1 2 "Cast and crew." The Vanished (2005 film). Retrieved from www.nathanross.net via Archive.com. Accessed 12 April 2024.
  6. 1 2 Groves, Don (2014). "Aussie writer tackles Shelley, Jane Austen." Archived 2024-06-17 at the Wayback Machine www.if.com.au. 1 August 2014. Accessed 12 April 2024.
  7. 1 2 "Sall Grover". Savage Minds. 1 December 2022. 0 hours 1 minutes 5 seconds.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Macpherson, Amber (2020)."Giggle app by Main Beach’s Sall Grover connects women across the world." Gold Coast Bulletin. 22 March 2020. Accessed 28 March 2024.
  9. ↑ "Australiana: "I'll never stop fighting for women" - Sall Grover on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. 22 June 2023. From 0 hours 1 minute 45 seconds to 0 hours 1 minute 45 seconds to. Archived from the original on 6 April 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  10. 1 2 Scheuerman, M. K., Pape, M., & Hanna, A. (2021). Auto-essentialization: Gender in automated facial analysis as extended colonial project. Big Data & Society, 8(2), 20539517211053712.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Perrett, Connor. "A social media app just for 'females' intentionally excludes trans women — and some say its face-recognition AI discriminates against women of color, too". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 29 March 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  12. ↑ Thieme, K., Saunders, M. A. S., & Ferreira, L. (2024). From language to algorithm: trans and non-binary identities in research on facial and gender recognition. AI and Ethics, 1-18.
  13. ↑ "'Just for females' social media app Giggle under fire for 'excluding' trans women". PinkNews. 24 January 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  14. ↑ Dumas, Daisy (2024). "Tickle v Giggle: transgender woman sues female-only ‘online refuge’ for alleged discrimination in landmark case." The Guardian. 9 April 2024.
  15. 1 2 Snowden, Angelica (6 July 2022). "Discrimination claims against women-only app dropped". The Australian. Archived from the original on 6 April 2024. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  16. 1 2 Panagopoulos, Joanna (10 April 2024). "'Evolutionary biologist' to be called in trans defamation case". The Australian.
  17. ↑ "Why the Giggle app is for females only." Archived 2023-09-24 at the Wayback Machine Plebity. 10 March 2021. Accessed 1 April 2024.
  18. ↑ Wyatt, Edie (2022)."Tickle vs. Giggle." Archived 2024-03-28 at the Wayback Machine The Spectator Australia. 4 July 2022. Accessed 28 March 2024.
  19. ↑ Lever, Cindy (2022). "‘It’s been hell’: women-only app founder in gender row nightmare." The Australian. 9 July 2022. Accessed 28 March 2024.
  20. ↑ Mackay, Melisssa (11 April 2024). "Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle seeks $200,000 in damages in first Federal Court case based on gender discrimination". ABC News. Archived from the original on 11 April 2024. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  21. ↑ Murrary, Duncan (11 April 2024). "Transgender woman seeking $200k in discrimination case". The Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 16 August 2024. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  22. ↑ Bettiza, Sofia (23 August 2024). "Roxanne Tickle: Australian court rules in case that asked 'what is a woman?'". BBC News. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  23. ↑ McKinnell, Jamie (15 May 2026). "Court upholds discrimination ruling on appeal after transgender woman excluded from Giggle for Girls app". ABC News. Retrieved 15 May 2026.
  24. ↑ Austlit. "Sall Grover | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Archived from the original on 17 June 2024. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  25. ↑ Snowden, Angelica (9 July 2022). "Clash between trans and women's rights". The Australian. Archived from the original on 6 April 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  26. ↑ Austlit. "Sall Grover | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Archived from the original on 17 June 2024. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  27. 1 2 "Sex and the City of Angels gets nod." Courier Mail. 18 Dec 2010. Accessed 9 April 2024.
  28. ↑ Both of these efforts appear not to have resulted in a final production.
  29. ↑ Bourke, Latika (24 July 2022). "I was trying to shut down a culture war, Bill Shorten says". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 27 May 2024. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  30. ↑ Bourke, Latika (2022)."I was trying to shut down a culture war, Bill Shorten says." Archived 2024-05-27 at the Wayback Machine Sydney Morning Herald. 25 July 2022. Accessed 5 April 2024.
  31. ↑ NCA News Wire (2022). "New mum’s fury over hospital form saying ‘birthing parent’." Archived 2022-07-21 at the Wayback Machine www.news.com.au. 21 July 2022. Accessed 5 April 2024.
  32. ↑ "Bill Shorten intervenes to replace ‘birth parent’ with ‘mother’ on Medicare form." Archived 2024-04-09 at the Wayback Machine SBS. 21 July 2022. Accessed 9 April 2024.
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