Grindr Disables Explore Feature in Olympic Village

Those familiar with Grindr, the popular and arguably infamous gay dating and hookup app, might know the “Explore” feature, which allows users to explores the profiles of users in locations around the world. However, the app has modified its privacy settings to protect LGBTQ athletes competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and disabled the “Explore” feature within the Olympic Village, according to a Bloomberg report.

In the past, people have used the app to reveal the profiles of LGBTQ athletes, which could potentially threaten the safety of closeted athletes from countries with anti-LGBTQ laws and practices.

Jack Harrison-Quintan, director of the Grindr for Equality department, says, “We want Grindr to be a space where all queer athletes, regardless of where they’re from, feel confident connecting with one another while they’re in the Olympic Village.”

Now, when users log into Grindr from the Olympic Village, they receive a message welcoming them to the Olympics and alerting them of the new privacy update.

The notification reads: “Your privacy is important to us. Our Explore feature has been disabled in the Olympic Village so that people outside your immediate area can’t browse here.”

Last year, TikTok and Twitter users exploited the feature and exposed the profiles of queer athletes competing in the Summer Games, including at least one athlete from a country where same-gender sexual relations are illegal.

At the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, journalist Nico Hines wrote a piece for The Daily Beast where he similarly used Grindr to find LGBTQ athletes and outed them online. He issued an apology after the piece was met with public backlash and was suspended from the publication for several months.

China has legalized same-gender sexual relations, though the country still has very few legal protections for LGBTQ folks.

Photo screenshot via Bloomberg