Au Revoir Grindr: Why is the LGBTQ+ dating app blocked in the Olympic Village in Paris?

They say love is just around the corner —but not if you’re swiping on Grindr in the Paris Olympics village.

The LGBTQ+ dating app, Grindr has restricted its “explore” function, meaning users won’t be able to find profiles by geolocating the Olympics Village in the City of Love, where at least 14,000 athletes from around the globe are based.

But why has Grindr been prohibited in the Olympic Village? Here’s what we know

No more prying

The US-based Grindr, which bills itself as on a mission to put a “global gayborhood” in your pocket, said in a blog post on Wednesday that it would disable location-based features to protect athletes from harassment or prosecution in the Paris Olympics Village.

“If an athlete is not out or comes from a country where being LGBTQ+ is dangerous or illegal, using Grindr can put them at risk of being outed by curious individuals who may try to identify and expose them on the app,” the company said.

According to Human Rights Watch, at least 67 countries participating in the games have national laws criminalising same-sex relations between consenting adults.

To address these concerns, Grindr is implementing several changes in the Olympic Village. For example, profiles will no longer automatically display the “show distance” feature, which reveals how far away someone is. This feature can still be enabled but will default to “off” for users in the Village and other venues.
Grindr said that change is to “help athletes connect without worrying about unintentionally revealing their whereabouts or being recognised.”

During the two-week event, Grindr will allow users in the Village to send unlimited disappearing messages and unsend messages for free—features that usually are behind a paywall. Additionally, the app has temporarily disabled the ability to send private videos and take screenshots within the specified area.

The company is enhancing security features, including easier access to the ‘Report a Recent Chat’ feature, allowing users to report concerns within 24 hours. Grindr will also replace usual advertisements with weekly reminders about the potential dangers of using the app in the Olympic Village.

As per OutSports, roughly 155 LGBTQ+ athletes are attending the Olympics in Paris, which is a small fraction of the over 10,000 athletes in total.

“We’re in the game, ensuring LGBTQ+ athletes can connect authentically without worrying about prying eyes or unwanted attention,” the dating app company further said.

Lesson from the past

Grindr’s decision to clamp down on its features stems from a controversy in 2016, when an American news agency, Daily Beast reported on using Grindr to meet athletes in the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro.

The article titled, “Rio’s other Olympic sport: Swiping” did not reveal athlete’s names but gave information about their nationality, height, etc due to which several athletes were identified by internet users.

Faced with controversy, the Daily Beast took down the article and replaced it with an editor’s note, which included an apology to “athletes who may have been inadvertently compromised by our story.”

While the article did not intend to harm the athletes or degrade the members of the LGBTQ+ community, it is not the intent but the impact that counts.

Following this Grindr decided to block athletes’ profiles during the Tokyo 2020 Games, as people used the app to geolocate athletes and then broadcast screenshots of their searches on Tik Tok and X.

Fabrice Houdart, a professor at Georgetown University and the executive director of the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors, told Fortune that the measures the app took to protect athletes are critical because their sexual orientation could in some cases be used to threaten or discredit them.

“Whether they’re Olympic athletes or just random people that might be robbed or attacked because they’ve been using the app, it’s clearly their responsibility,” Houdart told Fortune. “It’s kind of encouraging that they take action, because that means that they are realising that they have responsibilities.”

Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower reported that Grindr’s downloads in France remained steady since mid-July but surged by 25 per cent week-over-week on Wednesday, coinciding with the arrival of most athletes in Paris. Other dating apps like Tinder and Hinge also saw increased downloads in France by 10 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively, on 20 July, according to Sensor Tower.

With input from agencies