Grindr Vanishes From App Stores in China
Bloomberg news service reports. Searches for it on Android platforms produce no results, although it’s unclear when it was removed from those.
China-based competitors, such as Blued, remain available. Grindr is based in the U.S., having been sold to an American company by its Chinese owner in 2020.China’s Cyberspace Administration last week announced that it was stepping up efforts against content that it considers pornographic or otherwise unacceptable, Bloomberg notes.
Before Grindr disappeared from app stores in China, users were having difficulty connecting with it.China decriminalized homosexuality 25 years ago, and many of its major cities have thriving LGBTQ+ scenes, but the country is still an unfriendly place for LGBTQ+ people in many ways.
The government announced last September that it was banning portrayals of “sissy men” from television programs and “gay love” from video games.
