Grindr Reverses “No Zionists” Ban For User Bios

Popular gay dating app Grindr has reversed its decision to ban the phrase “no Zionists” from being used in users’ profiles.

The move comes after reporting from 404 Media found an error message appeared when the phrase “no Zionist” and “no Zionists” was used in user bios. However the app still allowed its users to include racist language, such as “no Blacks”, “no Jews”, and “no FFA”, an acronym for “fats, femmes or Asians”.

When approached for comment by 404, Grindr removed the restriction and issued a statement, saying the policy change was “implemented following user escalations around its potentially inflammatory nature.” A spokesperson confirmed that they regularly examine its moderation policies and said that the company “recently decided to reverse this one upon review.”

It’s not clear how long the policy was in place for, but previous reports have documented the ban as early as May 2024.

Grindr’s terms of service bans any information or material that a reasonable person could find “objectionable, defamatory, libelous, offensive, obscene, indecent, pornographic, harassing, threatening, embarrassing, distressing, vulgar, hateful, racially or ethnically or otherwise offensive to any group or individual, intentionally misleading, false, or otherwise inappropriate, regardless of whether this material or its dissemination is unlawful.”

Grindr’s founder, Joel Simkhai, is Israeli and left the company in 2018 after it was sold to a Chinese gaming firm. Its current CEO has faced backlash after the resurfacing of pro-Trump tweets from 2020.

Grindr previously pledged to fight racism

Grindr has previously faced criticism for its “ethnicity filters”, allowing users to pick and choose the races of their matches. Grindr announced they were removing the feature was in 2020 during the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“We will continue to fight racism on Grindr, both through dialogue with our community and a zero-tolerance policy for racism and hate speech on our platform. As part of this commitment, and based on your feedback, we have decided to remove the ethnicity filter from our next release,” a spokesperson for Grindr said at the time.

However, reporting from the BBC found the filter could still be used for several months afterwards.

The app has also faced accusations of sharing users’ data, including their HIV status, with third parties for marketing purposes, and was fined €6.5 in 2022 for violating the European Union’s data protection and privacy laws.