Grindr, a popular hookup app, yesterday announced it was removing its “ethnicity” filter.
Announcing the change, Grindr said it had a “zero-tolerance policy for racism and hate speech” on its platform.
It’s a problem Grindr long ignored, but something has forced its hand. The BBC’s Ben Hunte says because white users have started speaking out:
But some are angry that it has only happened as a result of white people speaking up on social media. Indeed, the most-shared social media posts written to shame Grindr into action were posted by white gay men.
This means that it’s just a resolved PR issue to Grindr, not the start of a different approach to related issues. For example, it’s likely that the ethnicity filter hid problems with algorithmic racism that will now be readily apparent to searchers