Happy Bulge Swim Co. launches 'phobe-free bulge-loving app

Appy Bulge is changing the game for celebrating your body on social media

It's become a rite of passage for gay men: get a cute new swimsuit or pair of undies and show it off on social media.

But as the community has experienced, it's becoming increasingly difficult to have the confidence in today's "body positivity" movement. Not because they're ashamed of what they look like but the fear of being who they are: themselves.

It's long been documented, even by GLAAD back in 2023 when Happy Bulge Swim Co. continually encountered targeted censorship from big tech-bro companies, that LGBTQ content is over-policed. Swimwear marketing no different than that in the Sears catalog in the '90s is flagged, targeted and removed from platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 

Happy Bulge's men's swimwear and underwear "violations" range from "exploiting COVID" to the all-too-common "encourages sexual activity" and "sexual solicitation." It's continued aggressively for seven years, even after addressing the problem with Meta's corporate communications team facing threat of a national broadcast story about the targeting.

That's why Happy Bulge launched its own 'phobe-free bulge-loving social media app, Appy Bulge. It's Instagram but without the judgement and corporate censorship.

"Earlier this year, we were hit with "solicitation" accusations for a silly photo of a man jumping on a bed in his swimsuit," said Jeremy Bradley, owner of Happy Bulge's parent company, SpeakFree Media Inc. "We'd tolerated it long enough but that was the final straw. The concept of Appy Bulge had been discussed with early-stage planning three years ago, but we went full force this spring -- no matter what the cost."

Appy Bulge is a photo-sharing social media community with all the standard features users are familiar with: posting, sharing, commenting, liking, stories, messaging and hashtag searching. The difference, said Bradley, is the content moderation.

"Show off your amazing ass in your new thong," said Bradley of Appy Bulge. "Show that noticeable VPL in your skin-tight swim brief. It's allowed here. We don't have technology scanning every post and saying, 'Uh oh, male anatomy' and deploying AI censorship robots to attack your content. It's not happening, and it won't happen." (He added, "Obviously, illegal or harmful content will be addressed and removed because that's the law.")

Each time Happy Bulge has posted screenshots of Meta's accusations on Instagram and Facebook, the reaction from fans and followers has been the same every time: "It happens to me all the time" and "It's getting out of control already" and most notably, "We need our own platform." That platform used to be Twitter but now, well, hi, Elon.

In May, SpeakFree got to work designing and building Appy Bulge internally, side-stepping the use of freelancers and agencies working on a one-year-plus timeline and a cost upwards of $300k.

"None of us has developer experience," said Bradley, a bestselling author, syndicated radio host and newspaper columnist of over 20 years. But we're all trained journalists, we've been producing, researching and creating together for more than two decades. We could make this happen. And, we did."

With Appy Bulge's core functionality in place in late May, a summer of fine tuning and testing began. And continued. And continued. And continued. Once the app got internal approval, it was sent to Google and Apple for their respective app store reviews.

"That's when the trouble began -- primarily with Apple," said Bradley. "Google's app review process is cumbersome and unhelpful to beginners. If you miss a check box or piece of information when registering the app, you're hit with a rejection and wait another seven days for them to give you another look. If that happens too many times, you're suspended and get the runaround of an impersonal appeal process. That delayed us for weeks. We also had to include a child abuse disclaimer for our gay-adult-themed app, which seemed unnecessary."

Apple, however, had an issue from the jump.

"Despite being a recognized swimwear and underwear brand for over seven years, Apple took issue with the word "bulge" and a cartoon mascot whose oversized head and body featured him wearing a rainbow-patterned swim brief. Coincidentally, his bulge is the smallest part of his body. Still, they said the imagery is inappropriate for four year olds because of a supposed sexual nature. When challenged about why children that young would be shown an app rated 18+ and to explain why Apple would target users of such a young age, we got no response from Apple's executive levels. This, after we sent them directly dozens of examples of live "boob" and "breast" apps sexualizing female bodies available in its app store. Neither the "executive response" rep who initially reached out to assist and later ghosted after promising a phone call, nor Apple's media team -- including a publicist I've known for 17 years when she was in TV entertainment publicity during my Canadian radio career -- nor the marketing team, nor the app store exec ever responded to over 30 requests for comment. In the end, we bumped up the logo's text to cover a cartoon's threateningly dangerous tiny crotch -- for the app icon only. We refused to change the project's overall branding."

Following a back-and-forth summer of big-tech targeting (déjà vu) with the app platforms, Appy Bulge was ready to launch mid-September. (Added Bradley, "Instagram has already been hitting us with "encouraging sexual activity" on "Download from your app store!" posts.")

So far, the user experience has been positive and engaging from the limited audience testing the app before its widespread rollout.

Appy Bulge will host regular features and promotions for Thong Thursday, Friend Friday and Happy Bulge's long-time promo, Giveaway Day. The customer-focused Next Top Bulge contest is set to return exclusively on the app. There are plenty of opportunities for the community to interact and celebrate who they are in a safe place, thanks to Appy Bulge.

Appy Bulge is available on Google and Apple app stores, and at appybulge.com.