Photo: CHRIS DELMAS / Getty Images
The LGBTQ+ dating app, Grindr, was removed from the Apple app store in China as well as from most Android phone app repositories.
According to information published by Bloomberg, the first sign of the disappearance of the application in the Apple App Store occurred on January 27 when users reported that the app had been removed from the store. However, there is no precision about when Grindr was removed from Android stores.
It is necessary to point out that for various reasons Google Play Store, Google’s official app store, is not available in China. For this reason, the app market is managed by local companies such as Tencent and Huawei.
It is believed that the decision to remove Grindr from app stores is due to to an order of the Chinese government. They had recently announced that they would take strong measures against illegal content, including pornography and “sick” activities carried out on the Internet.
The tightening of controls comes a few months before China becomes the host of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Although China does not have openly homophobic laws, experts say that measures like this show the dislike of the government towards issues related to the LGBTQ+ community .
They also state that this type of action demonstrates the intolerance that exists in the country towards people who are not heterosexual.
This type of censorship practice is not something new in China, a country whose government maintains tight control over the information that its citizens can consume on the Internet.
Similar events have also been recorded in previous years with news applications, maps, and even podcasts. This has led companies like Microsoft and Epic Games to decide to remove some of their products from the Chinese market such as LinkedIn and Fortnite, respectively.
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