Apple Has Removed Popular Gay Dating Apps From App Store in China

Two of the most popular gay dating apps in China have vanished from app stores following an order from the country’s primary internet regulator and censorship authority.

As of Tuesday 11 November, Finka and Blued were not available on the Apple app store and multiple Android platforms, though users who already had the apps downloaded to their phones appear to be able to use them without issue.

“Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed these two apps from the China storefront only,” Apple said in a statement to Wired. “We follow the laws in the countries where we operate.”

Apple runs a seperate app store in China in order to bypass the country’s digital filtering barrier, which sees apps like Facebook, Instagram, and international dating apps unable to be accessed by Chinese users. In 2022, Grindr was also pulled from the store, shortly after the Cyberspace Administration of China began to target content considered illegal and inappropriate.

Founded in 2012, Blued is China’s most popular dating app for gay men, with more than 40 million registered users intentionally. Its parent company, BlueCity, which focuses on China’s LGBTQIA+ population, acquired Finka in 2020.

Both apps were still available to download from the official websites, but neither have released official statements.

LGBTQIA+ community in China living ‘underground’ due to homophobia

Homosexuality has been legal in China since 1997, although same-sex marriage remains unrecognised, and public displays of queer identity or activism are risky.

In 2020, the country’s largest queer festival, Shanghai Pride, shut down indefinitely, citing the need to keep their staff safe, and dozens of LGBTQIA+ student advocacy groups on WeChat shut down the following year. As recently as September, there have also been instances of Chinese authorities censoring same-sex characters and storylines on screen.

As a result, the country’s queer community has been forced back into the shadows and underground, with the removal of the apps another stark reminder that the spaces they’re allowed to occupy are increasingly shrinking.