Osbert Journey 3

March 28, 2019

Yesterday, many articles were published online about Grindr, the most popular online dating application in the world for queer and gay men, being forced to sell due to US security concerns. The app Grindr was first developed and based in the United States in 2009. It became widely successful all around the world. The Chinese conglomerate, Kunlun Tech bought out 60% of the stakes, and outright purchased the app in 2018. In 2017, there had been around 27 million people worldwide using the application. Although it is unclear how many people out of the 27 million are actually US citizens, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has pressured or even forced Kunlun Tech to sell the application back to a US owned company, or even one of Grindr’s competitors. The application contains exchange of messages between users, their locations, and even personal information such as age, height, weight, and HIV status. The US is worried that Kunlun Tech could use this data in a negative way towards the US, therefore forcing them to sell. I think it is interesting how this issue was not first raised when the application was being sold, since the CFIUS has previously blocked other US popular applications being sold to Chinese companies, for example MoneyGram and AppLovin. Was Grindr not previously seen as a threat, leading to a successful purchase by Kunlun Tech? I’m also curious about what specifics the US security is worried about with the Chinese having access to this information.

One of the most interesting points is that China not only purchased this application to gain access to data on Chinese Grindr users, but users all over the world. I wonder what they plan to do with data of foreigners, considering China is usually only interested in having power and control over their own people.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/27/18283666/grindr-chinese-owner-beijing-kunlun-tech-cfius-divest-national-security-concerns

https://www.wired.com/story/us-forcing-chinese-firm-sell-gay-dating-app-grindr/