Apple removed WIRED has learned that two of the most popular gay dating apps in China were pulled from the App Store after receiving an order from China’s top internet regulator and censorship authority. The decision comes after reports on Chinese social media over the weekend that Blued and Finka had disappeared from the iOS App Store and several Android app stores. The apps appear to still be working for users in the country who have already downloaded them.
“We comply with the laws of the countries in which we do business. At the direction of the China Cyberspace Administration, we have removed these two apps from the China Store only,” an Apple spokesperson said in an email. Apple explained that the apps have not been available in other countries for some time. “Earlier this year, the creator of Finka decided to remove the app from stores outside China, and Blued was only available in China.”
Most international LGBTQ+ dating apps are already blocked in China. Grindr has been deleted from the Chinese Apple App Store in 2022.
China decriminalized homosexuality in the 1990s, but the government does not recognize same-sex marriage. The number of the LGBTQ+ community in China has increased in recent years come under pressure as the Chinese Communist Party increases its control over civil society and freedom of speech. Several leading gay rights organizations in China have closed their operations, and social media companies frequently censor LGBTQ+ content and accounts.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Posts on Chinese social media show that Blued abruptly stopped recent user registrations in July without providing an explanation. For a month, Chinese users who wanted to get onto the platform paid as much as $20 for used Blued accounts on e-commerce sites. However, registration resumed in mid-August.
In 2020, BlueCity, the parent company of Blued, went public. It has been announced that the application has ended 49 million registered users and over 6 million monthly vigorous users. That same year, BlueCity announced it was acquiring Finka, its main competitor in China, for approximately $33 million. The company was delisted in 2022 and was acquired by Newborn Town, a Hong Kong-listed social media company. Most of Blued’s longtime employees, including its founder Ma Baoli, left the company after the acquisition, says a former Blued employee who asked not to be named for privacy reasons.