Sall Grover

Sall Grover is an Australian businesswoman and the founder of Giggle, a social media app that app gained notability for its membership policy practically restricted access to cisgender women and transgender men. Prior to this endeavour, Grover worked in the film industry in Australia and in the United States as a production assistant and as a screenwriter.

Early life and career
Grover grew up on the Gold Coast, Queensland. She studied journalism and philosophy at Bond University. She initially worked as a production assistant on a short 2005 film, The Vanished. 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. Grover collaborated with Australian screenwriter Emma Jensen who had also moved to Los Angeles. 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. After years of sexual harassment working in Hollywood, Grover chose to return to Australia. Encouraged by her mother, she planned to build a social networking app for women.

Giggle app
In 2020, Grover founded Giggle for Girls, a mobile app designed as a social networking platform for cisgender women and other adults assigned female at birth. The name, Giggle, is described as a collective noun for women, with the app presented as catering to cisgender women, offering a safe online space for them to connect and find support in various areas such as finding roommates, freelancing, emotional support, and activism. Grover has said she was driven to develop a digital platform for cisgender 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.

The app's membership policies restricted access to adults assigned female at birth. To verify users' birth sex, it relied on technology developed by Kairos, a company that offers facial recognition software. Giggle was positively reviewed by anti-transgender and gender-critical organisations such as FiLiA, Women's Declaration International, and Meghan Murphy's Feminist Current. The app was particularly criticised for excluding transgender women. By 2021, the app reportedly had 20,000 users from 88 countries.

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

Legal case
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. The case has become known as Tickle v Giggle, which unfolded between 2022 and 2024.
 * January 2022: matter brought to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) by Roxanne Tickle, a transgender woman from Lismore, New South Wales who was denied membership of the site. AHRC initially offered conciliation between the parties, but those efforts were unsuccessful.
 * May 2022: matter filed in the Federal Circuit Court following the complaint.
 * July 2022: case was, without explanation, dropped, as Tickle sought to discontinue all of the orders.
 * June 2023: application made by Katherine Deves to dismiss the case was rejected.
 * December 2023: case reopened by Tickle. Tickle was granted $50,000 from Grata Fund, a not-for-profit legal fund associated with University of New South Wales, to cover costs associated with the case.
 * April 2024: hearing began before Justice Robert Bromwich with Giggle and Grover represented by Bridie Nolan. The court was required to examine the application of the Australian government's 2013 amendments to the 1984 Sex Discrimination Act. The amendments, which relate to gender identity, have not been tested in court prior to this case. The court's decision will determine if the social networking app may be considered as a special measure to advance women's equality under the Sex Discrimination Act, where the exclusion of men is permitted under law.

Responses
The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) participated in the legal case by sending representatives to the court, including Anna Cody, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner. The Commission's role in the case was extended as a ‘friend of the court’ (amicus curiae) to clarify the provisions in Australia's Sex Discrimination Act. While the Commission sought earlier conciliation between the parties, it declined to offer submissions to the case.

Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, was asked to provide input in the form of a position paper to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Alsalem's paper discussed the definition of "woman" in international human rights treaties, particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Alsalem argues that while CEDAW does not explicitly define "woman", it refers to individuals assigned female at birth and that sex and sex-based discrimination in that context is understood as a biological category.

Grover's has been supported by anti-transgender organisations including LGB Alliance Australia, Women's Forum Australia, and Coalition of Activist Lesbians.

The hearing concluded after several days of arguments and the decision is expected in late 2024.

Personal life
In July 2022, Grove gave birth to a daughter. 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." 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 ugly culture wars." Grover continues to live on the Gold Coast, on Main Beach.