Grinrdr, a dating app aimed at gay people, has disappeared from several online stores in China, a country whose authorities are tightening controls over the internet and eliminating behavior on the network that displeases the government.
Data found by mobile research firm Qimai shows that Grindr has been removed from the App Store (Apple) in China and from various Android platforms in the Asian giant since last Thursday (27). The Google Play store is not available in China.
Apple said that the app’s developers themselves were responsible for its removal from the Chinese App Store. Grindr did not respond to AFP inquiries.
However, local Grindr competitors such as Blued remain available to the public.
The Chinese Internet regulator is currently running a campaign to root out illegal and sensitive content during the Lunar New Year and Winter Olympics recesses in February.
This campaign aims to “create a civilized, healthy, festive and conducive online environment for public opinion during the Lunar New Year,” it said in a statement.
Last year, the accounts of prominent university groups advocating LGBTQIA+ rights were blocked on WeChat, a very popular Chinese social network.
While homosexuality has not been a crime since 1997 in the world’s most populous country, same-sex marriage remains prohibited and LGBTQIA+ issues are taboo.
The censorship of online content is concomitant with the representation of gay novels in cinema, putting the LGBTQIA+ community as a whole under pressure.
Source: Folha
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