Beijing | Gay dating app Grindr has vanished from several app stores in China where authorities are tightening control over the internet and weeding out online behavior that displeases the ruling Communist Party.
Data from mobile research firm Qimai shows Grindr was removed from Apple’s China App Store and several Chinese Android platforms on Thursday. Google Play is not available in China.
Neither Grindr nor Apple responded to AFP’s requests.
Grindr’s local competitors, such as Blued, remain available.
China’s internet regulator is currently waging a campaign to weed out illegal and sensitive content during the Lunar New Year holiday and the Winter Olympics in February.
The campaign aims to “create a civilized, healthy, festive and conducive atmosphere online for public opinion during the Lunar New Year,” the administration said in a statement.
Last year, prominent academic LGBTQ rights groups had their accounts blocked on WeChat, a popular social network in China.
Even though homosexuality has not been a crime since 1997 in the most populous country in the world, same-sex marriage is prohibited and LGBTQ issues remain taboos.
The censorship of web content is combined with that of representations of gay romances in the cinema, keeping the LGBTQ community under pressure.