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.
Well, the second part, yes. I’m responding to the “America good, China bad, ugg ugg” mentality.
Except I said literally nothing about America in the original comment. I feel like the exact opposite mentality is also very prevalent on Lemmy. If you say anything bad about China (or Russia, North Korea, etc.), you will immediately be met with “well what about America huh???” There’d probably be more actually constructive dialogue if every post criticizing China wasn’t immediately met with whataboutism.
Likewise, those same people will criticize the West for doing something and then praise China for doing the exact same thing. There was literally a comment in a thread about China just a day or two ago about state surveillance where someone was like “actually state surveillance in China is good because it benefits their citizens so it’s a-okay” while then criticizing the West for state surveillance.
It’s basically just my team vs. their team mentality.
EDIT: actually, I’ll put it this way: in the many, many threads criticizing America or Europe, I don’t often see someone randomly bring up China. In contrast, in threads criticizing China, I always see someone criticizing America or Europe pretty much out of nowhere.
I’ve tried also, but any time you criticize the USA or Europe and/or point out something is better in China you instantly get downvoted. There is no nuance whatsoever.