The US has demanded that Grindr be sold back to a US firm amid security concerns.
Grindr is to be sold back to a US firm.
In 2018 a majority stake in the world’s most popular gay hookup app was sold to a Chinese gaming firm in a deal that was worth nearly $100 million. However, the firm that sought to buy the firm, Kunlun Tech is going to auction off its stake by mid-2020.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US ruled that the treasure trove of data held by Grindr would be a concern for the national security of the United States and is effectively forcing the sale of the company back to a US company. The ruling from the Committee on Foreign Investment also ordered that the firm cannot share any data harvested from the app.
If no buyer is found the company will be forced to give over the app to a trustee.
Last year Grindr came under fire after it was revealed that the new CEO, Scott Chen was a heterosexual man, who seemingly took an anti-gay marriage stance.
Scott Chen, wrote, in a deleted (but later reinstated) social media message that it was his belief that marriage should be between and man and a woman.
He said, “There are people who believe that marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman. I agree but that’s none of our business. There are also people who believe that the purpose of marriage is to create children that carry their DNA. That’s also none of our business. There are people that are simply different from you, who desperately want to get married. They have their own reasons.”
Earlier this year Grindr closed its online magazine, Into, which at the time was the world’s most read LGBT+ media brand. It went, according to SimliarWeb, from over 7.5 million unique readers in December 2018 to just over 300,000 last month.
