Grindr disables location features in Olympic Village in effort to protect LGBTQ+ athletes

Grindr has disabled certain in-app features within the Paris 2024 Olympic Village out of concern for the safety of LGBTQ+ athletes.

The popular dating app, specifically designed for queer people, confirmed on July 25 it has disabled location-based features in the Olympic Village. The announcement came after many Grindr users noticed they were unable to use the “Explore” feature – which lets people change their location and look at profiles – while at the Olympic Village in Paris, France.

In a blog post shared Thursday, titled “Grindr and Enhanced Privacy for Athletes at the Paris Olympics,” the app explained that the decision to disable location services was made in an effort to protect queer Olympians from potentially being outed by individuals using Grindr.

“If an athlete is not out or comes from a country where being LGBTQ+ is dangerous or illegal, using Grindr can put them at risk of being outed by curious individuals who may try to identify and expose them on the app,” the company said.

“Being an LGBTQ+ athlete comes with its own unique set of challenges, especially for those who come from places that lack basic rights and protections for our community,” Grindr said. “That’s why we’re taking the additional step of sending targeted safety resources and information, including weekly messages reminding users that they may face danger while using the app in the Olympic Village and sharing links to our multilingual safety resources.”

In addition to turning off the app’s “Explore” and “Roam” features in the Olympic Village, Grindr said the app’s “show distance” feature will also be turned off by default, though users can share their approximate distance if they decide to turn it on.

Grindr users in the Olympic Village will also be able to send unlimited disappearing messages and unsend messages after they’re sent. People can disable screenshots for profile images and private videos, as well as access the “Report a Recent Chat’” feature in Settings to report any concerns within 24 hours.

“Our goal is to help athletes connect without worrying about unintentionally revealing their whereabouts or being recognized,” Grindr said. “To the trailblazing LGBTQ+ athletes heading to Paris, we can’t wait to see you shine.”

Grindr, which launched in 2009, similarly disabled location features at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The security measures came after US news site The Daily Beast used the LGBTQ+ dating app to get dates with athletes at the Rio 2016 Olympics. The article, which was later removed from the website, included details about individuals that could have identified them, such as their height, weight, nationality, and a description of their profile picture.

Following widespread backlash, the Daily Beast removed the article and issued an apology. “The Daily Beast does not do this lightly,” the publication said. “As shared in our editor’s note earlier today, we initially thought swift removal of any identifying characteristics and better clarification of our intent was the adequate way to address this. Our initial reaction was that the entire removal of the piece was not necessary.”

“We were wrong,” the website’s editors added. “We’re sorry. And we apologize to the athletes who may have been inadvertently compromised by our story.”

LGBTQ+ athletes were once again at risk at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. During the games, which took place in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, TikTok users had posted videos with the names and pictures of Olympians’ Grindr profiles, Business Insider previously reported.

According to OutSports, the Paris 2024 Olympics will include more than 150 LGBTQ+ athletes competing in this year’s games. An estimated 25 countries will be represented by at least one publicly out LGBTQ+ athlete across 32 sports.

The Paris 2024 Olympics kicks off on Friday, July 26 with an opening ceremony beginning at 7:30pm local time/1:30pm EST.