China Orders Gay Dating Apps Be Removed From Stores

China Orders Gay Dating Apps Be Removed From Stores

Apple confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that Chinese authorities have ordered the removal of two major gay dating apps from the country’s mobile app stores.

Same-sex marriage remains illegal in China, where discrimination against LGBTQ people is still common.

Activists say that government efforts to restrict LGBTQ visibility have intensified in recent years, especially under President Xi Jinping.

Over the weekend, Chinese social media users noticed that the full versions of Blued and Finka, both owned by a Hong Kong-based company had disappeared from Apple’s App Store and Android platforms.

“Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed these two apps from the China storefront only,” an Apple spokesperson told AFP.

China’s Cyberspace Administration (CAC), the country’s top internet regulator and censor, has recently penalized several social media platforms over content management issues.

“We follow the laws in the countries where we operate,” the Apple spokesperson said.

Earlier this year, the developer of Finka had “elected to remove the app from storefronts outside of China, and Blued was available only in China”, the spokesperson added.

AFP was unable to immediately contact either the CAC or the apps’ owner for comment.

As of Tuesday, a simplified “express” version of Blued was still available on Apple’s Chinese App Store. Meanwhile, the international version of the app, known as HeeSay, remained accessible outside China.

According to its App Store description, HeeSay connects “54 million LGBTQ+ individuals worldwide.”

Another popular gay dating app, Grindr, was removed from Chinese app stores in 2022 during a CAC-led internet “clean-up” ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Blued, however, had remained available at that time.