Apple iPhones on display Aug. 2017 in Beijing’s flagship Apple store in Beijing, China. “Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed” gay dating apps Blued and Finka from “the China storefront only,” according to Apple. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo
Two gay dating apps in China have been removed from app stores in a further crackdown on LGBTQ life.
The apps Finka and Blued, which were two of China’s most popular apps for LGBTQ+ people to get acquainted, were unavailable as of Tuesday on Apple’s store platform and Android, according to the BBC and The Guardian.
“Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed these two apps from the China storefront only,” Apple officials told Wired in a statement.
But reports indicated the apps were still available for users who had already downloaded them, and on their official websites.
“We follow the laws in the countries where we operate,” according to Apple.
Meanwhile, Blued and Finka have yet to comment.
In 2020, Finka was bought out by Blued’s parent company. Blued, founded in China in 2012, has more than 40 million global users, primarily gay men.
It now joins other apps like Grindr, Tinder, Facebook and Instagram as banned by Chinese authorities.
In China, homosexuality is no longer a crime. But it still faces strong stigma. Attempts to reverse decades of progress pushed large parts of Chinese LGBTQ society to the underground.
China’s communist government had a longstanding policy to neither support or oppose LGBTQ+ relationships, but in recent years that has changed with a crackdown on gay groups.
Shanghai Pride events, China’s biggest pride event, was suspended in 2020.
The 2022 cancellation of Taiwan Pride events demonstrated China’s influence on its independent island nation neighbor to the south.
It arrived as China digitally altered a film in September to turn a gay couple into man and woman for Chinese release.
