Tinder and Grindr blocked in Pakistan: immoral

In Pakistan, the authorities decided to block five dating apps, including the well-known Tinder and Grindr. The other three respond to the names of Tagged, Skout and SayHi. The official reason: they contribute to spreading "immoral content" and do not operate in compliance with the provisions of the laws in force in the country.

Pakistan: ban for five dating applications

The PTA (Pakistan Telecommunications Authority) has announced that it has notified the decision to the software houses that manage them, bringing to their attention the "negative effects" deriving from the use of apps. No response was provided within the allotted time and this led to the ban. As stated in the press release below, the ban imposed by Islamabad could be lifted should the service managers introduce a moderation deemed effective enough.

Press Release: PTA has blocked access to five dating / live streaming applications ie Tinder, Tagged, Skout, Grindr and SayHi. pic.twitter.com/gFJxsgcn6m

- PTA (@PTAofficialpk) September 1, 2020



It is not the first time that Pakistan, in the name of alleged immorality content, prevents access or use of a platform or service. Several years ago, Google created a special version of YouTube giving the central government the freedom to intervene by eliminating unwanted videos and last month the authorities threatened to block TikTok for very similar reasons. Over a decade ago, these pages also wrote about the blackout of Wikipedia.

Source: Reuters