(Reuters Breakingviews) - Human sexuality has no clear lines – a bit like foreig...
Flags of U.S. and China are placed for a meeting between Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and China's Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu at the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing, China June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee
NEW YORK - Human sexuality has no clear lines – a bit like foreign investment controls. The American authorities have classified Grindr, the dating app targeted at gay users, as a security risk because it’s owned by Chinese gaming group Beijing Kunlun Tech, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The fuzzy nature of overseas investment scrutiny means that one review doesn’t dictate the outcome of future ones – but it’s likely that Grindr’s problems will stoke more bad blood in the U.S.
Kunlun’s purchase of then-private Grindr in two stages in 2016 and 2018 was unusual in a number of ways. For one, China doesn’t legally acknowledge same-sex relationships, and forbids explicit internet content. Grindr President Scott Chen once wrote on Facebook that he believed marriage is between a man and a woman. But the deal didn’t trigger antitrust concerns.
It’s no surprise that Grindr might be seen as a potential security concern, especially now CFIUS has a clearer mandate to consider data as a security risk, following a recent expansion of its powers. Any hook-up app in which users exchange racy messages, images - and in some cases their HIV status - has the potential, in the wrong hands, to become a giant Kompromat machine. Grindr, like rivals including Scruff and Match-owned Tinder, has policies and processes to secure data.
CFIUS doesn’t have to show its workings, which means it doesn’t have to be consistent in its decisions. That suggests that it would be wrong to see this as a new blanket approach to Chinese-backed social networks. TikTok, for example, owned by SoftBank-invested ByteDance, doesn’t raise the same issues as Grindr because posting karaoke videos offers less potential for blackmail than arranging trysts.
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Grindr stokes bad blood in U.S.-China relationshipThe dating app’s Chinese ownership has been flagged as a U.S. security risk, Reuters reports. That ought not be a surprise given the potential to use hook-up data for Kompromat. But amid a trade war, this jilting move is likely to make U.S.-China relations even rockier.
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Exclusive: U.S. pushes Chinese owner of Grindr to divest the dating app - sourcesChinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd is seeking to sell Grindr LLC,...
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Exclusive: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating appChinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd is seeking to sell Grindr LLC,...
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Grindr defeats appeal over harassment on gay dating appA U.S. federal appeals court refused to hold Grindr liable to a New York man who said his former boyfriend used the gay dating app to post fake profiles, in a harassment campaign that caused more than 1,000 men to approach the victim for sex. The 3-0 decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
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Grindr stokes bad blood in U.S.-China relationshipThe dating app’s Chinese ownership has been flagged as a U.S. security risk, Reuters reports. That ought not be a surprise given the potential to use hook-up data for Kompromat. But amid a trade war, this jilting move is likely to make U.S.-China relations even rockier.
और पढो »
Exclusive: U.S. pushes Chinese owner of Grindr to divest - Reuters TVChinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd is seeking to sell Grindr LLC, the popular gay dating app it has owned since 2016, after a U.S. government national security panel raised concerns about its ownership, according to people familiar with the matter.
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