Days after The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) vowed to renew its campaign to police online content, a popular gay dating app, Grindr, has been removed from Apple App Store in China.
The U.S.-owned app was taken off the iOS store last week, while searches for the matchmaking platform on Android produce no results on app markets run by domestic giants like Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Co. Alphabet Inc.’s Play Store, like other Google services, is unavailable in China.
It’s unclear when Grindr disappeared from Chinese Android stores, while mobile research firm Qimai recorded that its iOS version was removed on Jan. 27.
Grindr’s removal comes as China kicks off fresh efforts to regulate internet content ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Last year, a slew of foreign internet services — including Yahoo, Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn and Epic Games Inc.’s Fortnite -– gave up on China, citing an increasingly challenging business and legal environment. China removed homosexuality from a national list of mental disorders about two decades ago, but Beijing censors have sporadically clamped down on entertainment and content with gay themes.
MacDailyNews Take: According to 9to5Mac‘s Chance Miller, it was Grindr itself who removed the app from the App Store in China, not Apple.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.
I’m pretty much convinced now that Apple’s ethics are pretty much convenient ethics related to profit and it really, really bothers me. Technology is a necessity in the 21st century, and as far as I’m concerned, and believe me, I didn’t used to feel this way, Apple is the lesser of evils, now. That should not be the criteria for an endorsement. That is a very sad thing to say. I pulled the Apple stickers off of my car years ago, and I no longer watch the keynotes, I think my last one with Tim was around 2015. Just give me my **** so that i can participate in modern society. That’s what Apple is now – the equivalent of a can opener. I’ll use it to function on a basic level. Anything more special than that is dead and buried, and it’s really, really too bad.
Sad.
If only Steve could come back, right?
Huh. I thought Tim was gay, and was almost annoyingly proud of broadcasting that fact. Guess it doesn’t matter when dollars are at stake. Dang. Apple is a shadow of its former self. The trouble is, there is nowhere better to go. 21st century tech is a briar patch, at best. The ‘cloud’ (all that means is your s*** is stored on a computer somewhere else, controlled by someone that you don’t even know) really wrecked us in some ways. The engineers that develop a lot of our technology seem to be fundamentally incapable of understanding the people they are inflicting it upon. That’s the generous view. The more cynical one is that they simply don’t care, and that would be pretty much the antithesis on which the world wide web was originally conceived on. Net neutrality my ***, Silicon Valley wanted the spoils and the control for themselves. If you are a lackey working for one of these companies, instead of commenting here, realize that you are a lackey, a simple cog in the machine. And the people that you work for (not your shift manager – the highest ups. Does your CEO know your name>) really don’t care,
I think you sentiments are more befitting of Facebook.. Not Apple!
Dont worry, Tim knows first hand knows the struggles of the gay community in China. He will demand that Grinder is put back on the app store in China by the end of the day. Mark my word Tim is a man of his word and he is determined to use all of Apple’s resources as a force for good. No way in hell Tim chooses profit over social responsibility.
That despicable “Apple BS” character is devastated. It’s his fave app.
Well, “lookie here! lol. Anti-gay commentators, and presumably Commie haters, fall right in line with Chi Coms.
So Tim made them to yank it???
Yeah, I blew that one….
-wait!
Sounds like the communist cat got the cream pie… wait!!
Is nobody going to point out the obvious? If the Chinese Government does not want Grindr on the App Store, it is not going to be available in China, no matter what Apple does. If the app is not withdrawn, China will simply block access to the App Store by anyone behind the Great FireWall and Grindr will still be unavailable. The only difference is that one way, every other app keeps working and the other way, all the iPhones in China will effectively be bricked.