Grindr: Ethnicity Filter to be Removed

Popular hook-up and dating app Grindr announced it will remove the “ethnicity filter” from the next version of its app. The current version of the app offers filtering options for searches based on age, height, weight and ethnicity. The change was announced amidst the race turmoil in America sparked by the death of black man George Floyd after being knelt on by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Grindr took to social media to express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and was accused of hypocrisy.

A message saying “remove the ethnicity filter” was retweeted on Twitter more than 1,000 times.

Grindr publicised the change and said it had a “zero tolerance policy to racism and hate speech.” Grindr was started in 2009 by Joel Simkhai in Los Angeles, USA. A 60% stake in the company was sold to Chinese tech company Kunlun in 2016. Kunlun bought the remainder of Grindr in 2018. The app averages 3.6 million users daily

Some gay men defend their sexual racism as “preference,” but it’s no different than outright discrimination.

“I’m not racist. It’s just a preference.” They say. Research shows, however, that these “preferences” come from the same place as general racism, and are informed by the biases our culture produces regarding minorities. Read more here: