Chinese authorities have directed the removal of two major gay dating applications from mobile app stores. Same-sex marriage remains illegal in China, and members of the LGBTQ community continue to face widespread discrimination.
Activists have repeatedly raised concerns that under President Xi Jinping, the space for queer visibility and advocacy has been steadily shrinking.
Over the weekend, social media users in China noticed that the full versions of Blued and Finka, two leading gay dating platforms owned by a Hong Kong-based company, had disappeared from both Apple’s App Store and Android platforms.
“Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, CAC, we have removed these two apps from the China storefront only,” an Apple spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The CAC serves as the country’s top internet regulator and chief online censor. It has, in recent months, sanctioned several platforms for failing to comply with its content-control directives.
“We follow the laws in the countries where we operate,” Apple added in its statement.
According to Apple, the developer of Finka had earlier this year voluntarily withdrawn the app from stores outside China, while Blued remained accessible only within the country.
As of the time of filling this report, either the CAC nor the apps’ parent company could be immediately reached for comment.
As of Tuesday, a lighter ‘express’ version of Blued was still available for download on Apple’s Chinese App Store.
Meanwhile, an international version of the app, rebranded as HeeSay, remains accessible in other countries. The description of HeeSay in Apple’s App Store states that the platform connects “54 million LGBTQ+ individuals worldwide.”
This latest development follows a pattern of increasing censorship targeting LGBTQ content in China. It would be recalled that in 2022, another popular gay dating app, Grindr, was pulled from Chinese app stores during a CAC-led online “clean-up” campaign ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics. At that time, Blued had notably remained available for users within China.
