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Bars, Pride and dating apps: How China is closing down its LGBT+ spaces
Bars, Pride and dating apps: How China is closing down its LGBT+ spacesFrance 24
When two dating apps, Blued and Finka, disappeared from the Apple AppStore in China on November 11, a whole world threatened to disappear.
The apps are two of the most popular among China’s LGBT+ community. Blued had been downloaded tens of millions of times, according to the BBC.
In taking them down, the authorities removed two major LGBT+ spaces, leaving little in their place.
“There are still some local apps available, but they are smaller, and they have limited circulation and popularity,” says Bao Hongwei, specialist in China’s queer culture at the University of Nottingham.
Apple said it removed the apps “based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China”.
It is not the first time that the authorities have targeted gay dating apps. In 2022, the American app Grindr was retired in China.
The ban on Grindr could be put down to China’s wider dislike of Western apps, which are often accused of being vehicles for foreign influence. But removing Blued and Finka, which were both developed in China, represents a “seismic change in government attitudes towards homegrown LGBT apps”, says Hongwei.
...
The apps are two of the most popular among China’s LGBT+ community. Blued had been downloaded tens of millions of times, according to the BBC.
In taking them down, the authorities removed two major LGBT+ spaces, leaving little in their place.
“There are still some local apps available, but they are smaller, and they have limited circulation and popularity,” says Bao Hongwei, specialist in China’s queer culture at the University of Nottingham.
Apple said it removed the apps “based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China”.
It is not the first time that the authorities have targeted gay dating apps. In 2022, the American app Grindr was retired in China.
The ban on Grindr could be put down to China’s wider dislike of Western apps, which are often accused of being vehicles for foreign influence. But removing Blued and Finka, which were both developed in China, represents a “seismic change in government attitudes towards homegrown LGBT apps”, says Hongwei.
...