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Apple has confirmed that it has removed two popular gay dating apps from its Chinese iOS Store, following an order from Beijing’s main internet regulator and censorship authority.
It comes following reports of the apps — Blued and Finka — suddenly disappearing from the iOS App Store over the weekend.
In a statement shared with CNBC, Apple confirmed that it was behind the action and defended the company’s position, stating that it must follow the laws of the countries where it operates.
“Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed these two apps from the China storefront only,” the company said, though they clarified that the apps had already been unavailable in other countries.
However, a “lite” version of the Blued app is still available for download on the China App Store, CNBC confirmed Tuesday.
The Wire had been the first to report that Apple had made the move at Beijing’s order.
The disappearance of Blued and Finka is the latest example of China’s crackdown on app stores in recent years.
Grindr, a popular gay dating app from the U.S., was removed from the iOS store in 2022, days after the Cyberspace Administration of China began a crackdown on content it considered illegal and inappropriate.
Later in 2023, Beijing announced new policies requiring all apps serving local users to register with the government and receive licenses. That move had resulted in a wave of foreign apps being removed from iOS.
The following years have also seen regulators continue to appeal directly to companies like Apple to remove certain apps due to issues with their content.
In April 2024, Apple removed Meta’s WhatsApp and Threads from iOS following an order from the CAC, citing national security concerns.
Apple has proven a willingness to comply with these requests in China, which represents its largest oversea market outside the U.S.
The takedown of Blued and Finka also likely reflects increasing crackdowns and censorship of the LGBTQ community in China. In recent years, the government has shuttered major advocacy groups, including the Beijing LGBT Center.
While homosexuality was decriminalized in China in 1997, same-sex marriage remains unrecognized.
— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.
