Grindr, the most popular app for gay men with 27 million users, will finally remove a filter that allows users to search for people based on their race.
Available options under the ethnicity filter included Asian, Black, Latino, and ”Other”. Throughout the past several years, users have accused the app of perpetuating a toxic culture of racial preferences.
In a Tweet on Monday night, the app announced that it would take out its racial filters in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Although the company had long discussed taking out the ethnicity filter, Landen Zumwalt, Grindr’s former head of communications, told The Guardian that the filter also helped “minorities find other minorities”. After the app’s Tweeted the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter following the death of George Floyd, many in the comments called for the app to remove their ethnicity filter in solidarity with POC communities.
While many applauded the move, others thought that taking away the filter didn’t do enough to combat the rampant racism within the app.
Amazing. Please can we report profiles with “no blacks, no trans, no Asians” in there profiles and you can deal with them quickly as you do sex workers?
— Eupd Guy #BLM (@santouris) June 1, 2020
You have a zero-tolerance policy for racism on your platform!?? That’s amazing to learn considering you have a race filter and let people post “I’m here for vanilla and spice, not chocolate or rice” on their profiles.
— Doug Dodson (@DougDodsonENews) June 1, 2020
Now make it possible to report people for racism.
— james | #BLACKLIVESMATTER (@hummusexualJR) June 1, 2020
Other filters include height and weight, which will remain available in the next version of the app.
