Grindr is limiting location services at the Olympics to protect LGBTQ+ athletes

People looking for love with an Olympic athlete could have a difficult time this year: Grindr, the LGBTQ+ dating app, has disabled some of its location-sharing features to protect athletes from harassment or prosecution.

People looking for love with an Olympic athlete could have a difficult time this year: Grindr, the LGBTQ+ dating app, has disabled some of its location-sharing features to protect athletes from harassment or prosecution. Some users noticed this week that they can’t use the “Explore” feature on the app at the Olympic Village in Paris, which lets people change their location and look at profiles. That’s by design, Grindr confirmed. The company explained in a blog post that for an athlete who isn’t out or comes from a country with strict LGBTQ+ laws, using the app “can put them at risk of being outed by curious individuals who may try to identify and expose them.” The app can still be used by people in the Village, even though some location services will be disabled. Roughly 155 LGBTQ+ athletes are attending the Olympics in Paris, according to OutSports, which is a small fraction of the more than 10,000 attending the games. The company is making other changes for the Olympic Village: For example, profiles default to revealing how far away someone is with the “show distance” feature. That feature can be enabled but will default to “off” for users in the Village, and other venues. Grindr said that change is to “help athletes connect without worrying about unintentionally revealing their whereabouts or being recognized.” During the two-week event, Grindr is also letting users in the Village send unlimited disappearing messages or unsend messages for free. Those are features typically the app charges for. Sending private videos and disabling screenshots have also been temporarily disabled if used in that radius.