Google pulls gay dating app from its Indonesian store, bowing to government’s complaints about ‘pornography’
Indonesia’s parliament is reported to be debating an amendment to the criminal code that could make same-sex relationships and sex outside marriage illegal
Google has pulled one of the world’s largest gay dating apps from the Indonesian version of its online store in response to government demands, Jakarta said on Wednesday, amid a crackdown on the LGBT community.
Officials had called for the tech giant to remove 73 LGBT-related applications, including dating services, from its Play Store, and urged people to shun apps that broke with cultural norms in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation.
Communications ministry spokesman Noor Iza confirmed on Wednesday that gay dating application Blued – which boasts more than 27 million users globally – no longer appeared in the Google Play Store available to Indonesian users.
“There was some negative content related to pornography inside the application,” Iza said. “Probably one or some members of the application put the pornographic content inside.”
As of Wednesday, Apple’s online store still had Blued available.
Google declined to say whether it would comply with the government demand to remove dozens of LGBT-related apps.
There was some negative content related to pornography inside the application