Blued and Finka were removed from Apple's App Store and certain Android App Stores.

Blued and Finka were removed from Apple’s App Store.

LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance have taken another hit in China, with Apple removing two of the countries biggest LGBTQ+ dating apps. Wired reports that Blued and Finka are no longer available on the iOS App Store or certain Android App Stores following orders from the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet regulator and censor.

Apple told Wired that it must “follow the laws in the countries where we operate.” Both dating apps were available solely in China, where LGBTQ+ dating apps are minimal — Grindr, for instance, hasn’t been available on Apple since 2022. Blued exists internationally under the name HeeSay.

China has increasingly cracked down on LGBTQ+ individuals’ rights and groups in recent years, allegedly shuttering large organizations like the Beijing LGBT Center in 2023. For reasons unknown, Blued previously stopped new registrations this past July, with individuals buying second-hand accounts to use the app. However, it reopened in the middle of August.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 hours ago

    Part of the problem with “China Bad” articles is that they tend to report “Thing Happened” without diving into the “Here’s Why”. If you get past the Engadget article that’s just a four paragraph click-through/reprint of the Wired article and read the original piece, there’s at least a bit more meat on the bone.

    https://www.wired.com/story/apple-removes-gay-dating-apps-china-app-store/

    In July, Blued abruptly stopped new user registration without giving an explanation, according to Chinese social media posts. For a month, Chinese users who wanted to get on the platform were paying as much as $20 for secondhand Blued accounts on ecommerce websites. But registration resumed in mid-August.

    In 2020, BlueCity, the parent company of Blued, went public. It announced that the app had over 49 million registered users and over 6 million monthly active users. The same year, BlueCity said it was acquiring Finka, its main competitor in China, for about $33 million. The company delisted in 2022 and was acquired by Newborn Town, a Hong Kong–listed social media firm. Most of the longtime employees of Blued, 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.

    In 2024, Blued rebranded its international version of the app to HeeSay, which became popular among users in India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, according to The Wall Street Journal. HeeSay remains available in app stores.

    So the apps merged, then were traded, had the team gutted, and the app pivoted to serving an entirely new audience of users.

    Why would this provoke a response from a Chinese regulator? Idk. Would be great to find out further details from the news outlet itself, rather than just getting another “China hates gay people” superficial response.

    It doesn’t look like the Cyberspace Administration of China purged all gay dating apps from their behind-the-firewall app store. So it seems premature to conclude this is a new vast pogrom against gay dating. Was Blued/Finka filling up with scams to the point that a regulator stepped in? Was there some kind of personal beef between the new owners and the Chinese regulatory agency? Did a bribe not get paid? Is this actually the beginning of a vast pogrom against all dating apps?

    No fucking clue. And nobody doing the reporting seems to be interested in following up and asking.