Pakistan has blocked five dating apps including gay dating apps like Grindr stating that they hosted ‘immoral and indecent content’.
This move has drawn the ire of LGBTQIA activists in Pakistan who see this as a crackdown against the already oppressed and marginalized LGBTQIA communities.
Salman Khan, an LGBT activist from Pakistan slammed the Pakistani government calling it a fascist, Islamist and homophobic move.
He said that these apps served the marginalized and criminalized LGBTQ community of Pakistan by providing a much needed platform to socialize and connect with their kind.
“For a lot of LGBTQ+ folks, they were a platform where we were able to exist despite our state, society & families [working] against our very existence.”
He also questioned the silence of Pakistan’s “Digital Rights Activists” in Pakistan not discussing the disastrous and authoritative effects of ban of these apps especially Grindr on the oppressed and marginalized LGBTQIA communities but instead were busy sharing humour about how cheating husbands in Pakistan would feel deprived.
Salman Khan also stated that instead of the government banning child abuse and pornography and the abuse of LGBTQ+ and religious minorities, the Pakistani government is busy banning Tinder and Grindr.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had stated that it had blocked the services as it did not receive a reply to the notices issues to the companies advising them to remove dating services and moderate live streaming content on their apps.
It added that it can “reconsider” the block if the apps adhere to local laws and moderate indecent and immoral content.
According to CNN, Tinder and Grindr were downloaded 440,000 and 300,000 times respectively in the last 12 months. Tagged and SayHi had each been downloaded about 300,000 times in Pakistan, and Skout 100,000 times in the past 12 months, the CNN report said quoting Sensor Towers data.
It is to be noted that homosexuality is criminalized in Pakistan. The Hudood Ordinances – enacted in 1979 by the Zia-ul-Haq administration – as part of the Islamisation/Sharization of Pakistan, criminalize adultery, fornication, consuming alcohol and same-sex sexual acts. These laws mandate primitive forms of penalization like whipping, amputation and death by stoning.
Homosexuals in Pakistan may face secular or Islamic punishments, or both.
Thus along with the non-Muslim minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, etc., the LGBTQIA are among the persecuted communities in Pakistan. All LGBTQIA rights discourse happen under the banner of transgender rights.