Featured Image Credit: MARTIN BUREAU / Contributor / MICHEL EULER / Contributor / Getty
Dating apps have made it easier to match with potential dates with just a swipe and a message.
But if you were looking for the one or a date attending the Olympics, you're out of luck!
Grindr users in the Olympic Village have noticed that they can’t use the app's 'explore' feature to find others in the Olympic Village at this year's Paris Summer Games.
The Olympic Village is where the athletes and their teams live during the event, constructed among three neighbourhoods in Paris.
Advert
not they blocked Grindr in the Olympic Village 😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/sZsC996Kaa
— Louis Pisano (@LouisPisano) July 22, 2024
'they blocked Grindr in the Olympic Village,' one X (formerly Twitter) user posted alongside two pictures that show the location of the Olympic and Paralympic Village in the L'ile Saint-Denis neighbourhood with 'no profiles available.'
The surrounding neighbourhoods are still filled with Parisians seeking love and other things.
The poster, Louis Pisano, also shared a news article explaining the reason behind this decision.
It read: 'This is in response to the 2016 Rio Olympics, where the safety of LGBTQ+ athletes was compromised after a journalist used Grindr to out closeted ones in an article.'
Grindr has a history of taking steps to protect athletes' privacy during the Olympics.
Reports show the app has been used to 'out' athletes which caused controversy in countries where it is still illegal or taboo.
A 2016 incident in Rio saw a Daily Beast reporter expose several athletes using Grindr, causing major backlash. The article was consequently retracted and called for demands for privacy for the participants.
By the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Grindr had begun limiting the visibility of athletes.
Though the move coincided with Chinese officials who allegedly removed the app from stores to 'tame bad behaviour' during the games.
A representative from the Paris 2024 organising committee told the Daily Mail that while athletes can still use dating apps within the Olympic Village, some features, like geolocation, have been 'deactivated by the app's publisher.'
The popular LGBTQ app also posted a blog alerting the public to its 'enhanced privacy' settings surrounding this year's games.
This includes the disabling of its 'Explore' and 'Roam' features within the Olympic Village and the 'show distance' feature being turned off by default unless a user chooses to manually turn it on.
