Apple has removed two of the most popular gay dating apps in China from the App Store after receiving an order from China’s main internet regulator and censorship authority, WIRED has learned. The move comes as reports of Blued and Finka disappearing from the iOS App Store and several Android app stores circulated on Chinese social media over the weekend. The apps appear to still be functional for users in the country who already have them downloaded.

“We follow the laws in the countries where we operate. Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed these two apps from the China storefront only,” an Apple spokesperson said in an email. Apple clarified that the apps have not been available in other countries for some time. “Earlier this year, the developer of Finka elected to remove the app from storefronts outside of China, and Blued was available only in China.”

Most international LGBTQ+ dating apps are already blocked in China. Grindr was removed from Apple’s Chinese App Store in 2022.

China decriminalized homosexuality in the 1990s, but the government does not recognize same-sex marriage. In recent years, China’s LGBTQ+ community has increasingly come under pressure as the Chinese Communist Party tightens its control over civil society and free expression. Several prominent gay rights organizations in China have shut down, and social media companies now frequently censor LGBTQ+ content and accounts.

The Chinese embassy in Washington, DC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In July, Blued abruptly stopped new user registration without giving an explanation, according to Chinese social media posts. For a month, Chinese users who wanted to get on the platform were paying as much as $20 for secondhand Blued accounts on ecommerce websites. But registration resumed in mid-August.

In 2020, BlueCity, the parent company of Blued, went public. It announced that the app had over 49 million registered users and over 6 million monthly active users. The same year, BlueCity said it was acquiring Finka, its main competitor in China, for about $33 million. The company delisted in 2022 and was acquired by Newborn Town, a Hong Kong-listed social media firm. Most of the longtime employees of Blued, including its founder Ma Baoli, left the company after the acquisition, says a former Blued employee who asked not to be named for privacy reasons.

In 2024, Blued rebranded its international version of the app to HeeSay, which became popular among users in India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, according to the Wall Street Journal. HeeSay remains available in app stores.

It’s unclear if the removal of Blued and Finka in China is temporary or permanent. In the past, some Chinese apps have been able to return to app stores after undergoing changes requested by the Cyberspace Administration of China. BlueCity and Newborn Town did not immediately respond to requests for comment from WIRED.

BlueCity expanded into the healthcare sector several years ago, launching a digital pharmacy service and telehealth clinic aimed at Chinese men. The company’s health app, He Health, targeted men seeking discreet treatment for health concerns such as erectile dysfunction or sexually transmitted infections.

The company also operates a nonprofit dedicated to combatting HIV/AIDS. In 2012, Ma met with Li Keqiang, who later became China’s premier, about HIV prevention work that Blued was doing. The meeting was widely seen as tacit approval for the app to continue operating in China.

On November 5, the nonprofit arm of BlueCity posted on WeChat that its HIV testing program had been named one of the “Best Volunteer Service Projects in the Capital” by Beijing’s Municipal Communist Party Committee.