China blocks gay dating app Grindr from phone stores to drive out 'Bad internet culture'

Amounting to China's latest self-imposed moral policing, on the pretext of Beijing's crackdown on illegal and sensitive content, the Xi Jinping-led government has restricted the basic rights of the LGBTQ+ community. Under the blanket of 'bad internet culture'. On Thursday, the Gay dating app 'Grindr' vanished from application stores in the Chinese Communist Party regime, The New York Post reported. Apart from being excluded from the iPhone's App Store, the aforesaid app is removed from the Android system and stores run by Chinese phone makers- Tencent and Huawei. 

One of the prominent gay dating apps Grindr has confirmed the removal while Apple was compelled to clarify that it has restricted the application from the App Store in the country but not the Apple entity. Grindr is a location-based social networking and online dating app for gay, bi and other queer sections. One of the first geosocial apps for gay persons, the app was launched in 2009 and has become one of the most popular gay dating apps globally. 

China bans gay dating app Grindr ahead of festivities

Reportedly, under the tandem of a month-long campaign to eradicate evils of society, amid the Lunar New Year holiday and upcoming Winter Olympics, the Chinese authorities are flushing out depictions of 'sissy men' and gay persons, a New York-based video journalist media house, The Recount confirmed.

The latest restriction on LGBTQ+ rights, albeit the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1997, has been carried out with an objective to 'create a civilised, healthy, festive and auspicious online atmosphere for public opinion during the Lunar New Year', an official statement stated.

China's Cyberspace Administration announced the censorship and justified the same as a crackdown on online pornography, gambling and the vices related to 'money worshipping.'

Notably, Google does not operate its app store on Android phones across China, and phone makers devise their own stores to offer apps. Obviously, at the behest of the Communist regime, these app stores are expected to censor items accordingly. Likewise, various sites and US or West-sourced apps have drawn criticism for censoring the content of journalists, activists, academicians who are critics of Xi Jinping. 

It is not incorrect to comment that the moral and basic rights of the Chinese population have seemingly shrunken over the years. While countries are paving their way forward, Beijing is adamant about asserting its unjustified rigid values.