Google yanks gay dating app from Indonesia online store
Google yanks gay dating app from Indonesia online store
The government's gay apps ban comes against a backdrop of
growing hostility towards Indonesia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
31 Jan 2018 03:49PM
JAKARTA: Google has pulled one of the world's largest gay
dating apps from the Indonesian version of its online store in response to
government demands, Jakarta said on Wednesday (Jan 31), amid a crackdown on the
LGBT community.
Officials had called for the tech giant to remove 73
LGBT-related applications, including dating services, from its Play Store and
urged people to shun apps that broke with cultural norms in the world's biggest
Muslim-majority nation.
Communications ministry spokesman Noor Iza confirmed on
Wednesday that gay dating application Blued - which boasts more than 27 million
users globally - no longer appeared in the Google Play Store available to
Indonesian users.
"There was some negative content related to
pornography inside the application," Iza told AFP.
"Probably one or some members of the application put
the pornographic content inside."
As of Wednesday, Apple's online store still had Blued
available.
Google declined to say whether it would comply with the
government demand to remove dozens of LGBT-related apps.
Homosexuality and gay sex are legal in Indonesia - except
in conservative Aceh province, which is ruled by Islamic law - but same-sex
relationships are widely frowned upon and public displays of affection between
gay couples almost unheard of.
In Aceh at the weekend, police forcibly cut the hair of a
group of transgender women and made them wear male clothing, sparking protests
from rights groups.
Elsewhere in Indonesia, police have often used a tough
anti-pornography law to criminalise members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) community, and the government's gay apps ban comes against a
backdrop of growing hostility towards the embattled minority.
Government officials, religious hardliners and influential
Islamic groups have lined up to make anti-LGBT statements in public recently.
Indonesia's parliament is reported to be debating an
amendment to the criminal code that could make same-sex relationships and sex
outside marriage illegal.
The community has also been targeted in a number of raids
on "gay sex" parties in the country's two largest cities Jakarta and
Surabaya.
A survey released last week has added to fears that a
wave of homophobia is sweeping the nation of more than 250 million, which has
traditionally been regarded as a bastion of tolerant Islam.
The survey conducted by respected pollster Saiful Mujani
Research and Consulting found that 87.6 per cent of 1,220 respondents
"felt threatened" by LGBT people and believe Islam bans same-sex
relations.
But the poll also found that the majority of Indonesians
who were familiar with the term LGBT thought individuals had a right to live in
the country.
Source: AFP/ng
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