Apple announced the removal of two prominent gay dating apps, Blued and Finka, from its App Store in China to comply with a directive from the CCP’s cyberspace regulator. The same-sex dating and social apps abruptly vanished from iOS downloads over the weekend.
Apple said the removal was “based on an order” from the Cyberspace Administration of China but didn’t elaborate on what the order was about.
BlueCity, a Beijing-based tech company that owns both Blued and Finka, didn’t announce why its apps were pulled from Apple’s app store in China.
The removal has raised concerns among LGBTQ people in China, who have been facing a lack of legal protection and shrinking public spaces in recent years, including closures of major LGBTQ advocacy groups…
China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and delisted it as a mental disorder in 2001, but same-sex marriage is not legal and there is limited official recognition of gay relationships… In September, the U.S. movie “Together” that featured a same-sex wedding scene was digitally altered to turn one of the two men into a woman for early screenings in mainland China.2
MacDailyNews Note: “We follow the laws in the countries where we operate,” Apple spokesperson said in a statement to the media.
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