Gay hook-up apps pulled from Google Play Store in Indonesia after government censorship demands

Gay hook-up apps have been pulled from the Google Play Store in Indonesia amid a government crackdown on the LGBT community.

Police have clamped down on the gay community in Indonesiaover the past yearr, with more than a hundred arrested in raids on gay venues and establishments in Jakarta in October.

It is technically legal to be gay in Indonesia apart from in the ultra-conservative Aceh province, which implements harsh punishments under Islamic law.

Earlier this week 12 transgender women in Aceh were arrested, shaved and forced to dress in men’s clothing, as part of a “community sickness operation”.

Meanwhile lawmakers are trying to pass legislation which would outlaw  ‘LGBT behaviours’ on television – potentially censoring shows that include LGBT characters as well as news reports on the LGBT community.

In another warning sign today, the region’s largest gay dating app was abruptly pulled from the Google Play store after demands from the government.

File photo: Hook-up apps (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

China-based app Blued, which is the largest hook-up app for the LGBT community across Asia and rivals Grindr globally, was pulled from the store as the government demanded Google censor a total of 73 LGBT-related applications.

The app has not yet been removed from the iPhone App Store in the country.

The government claimed that the app were removed due to “negative content” and “pornographic content”.

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