China has banned the gay dating app ‘Grindr’ which is popular among networking apps among the circles of the LGBTQ community across the globe. The removal came as a part of the clean-up campaign during the Lunar New Year holidays in late January this year.
Sources say the location-based dating app started disappearing from several app stores available in China after its cyberspace authority launched an internet clean-up campaign to ensure a “healthy, festive and auspicious online environment”. The app was removed from Apple’s I-store in the last week of January while Grindr users in China kept on complaining about failures in sending and receiving messages and loading pictures on the app.
The Cyberspace Administration of China removed the dating platform two days after it announced the renewal of a month-long round of campaigns conducted by the police over what it considers illegal and inappropriate content. Apps and Accounts violating national law on online rumours, pornography and superstitions and disseminating problematic content were punished during the campaign.
In 2017, The Chinese government had deleted a similar dating app – Zank, after accusing it of hosting pornographic content. In July 2021, a number of prominent WeChat LGBTQ accounts and groups were deleted enmasse. In a move that has been seen as threatening the rights of the LGBTQ community in China, Homosexual marriages continue to remain illegal in the country. China decriminalized Homosexuality in 1997 but it remains a stigmatised subject even today.
With the constant banning of apps, China has become a challenging business and legal environment with many top multinational firms including Yahoo, Microsoft’s LinkedIn and Epic Games Inc.’s Fortnite closing their operations in the country.