What Threat Of A Chinese Owned Grindr To US National Security?

This looks like economic nationalism rather more than a legitimate national security concern. The US is insisting that Grindr – the gay dating app – cannot or at least should not be Chinese owned. Quite why this should be so in this modern world is something not really explained. Being gay, gay dating, these aren’t things that would bar from being a spy for example. We’ve all moved well along from that sort of belief that such opens one up to blackmail. For a start, sexual preference other than with children is all legal now. Societally there’s not much to it either. Sure, the child of a strictly religious family might not want Momma to know but that’s not a matter of state.

So, why?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Chinese owners to sell dating app Grindr after US raises ‘national security’ concerns[/perfectpullquote]

Rather more to do with something else I suspect:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] The Chinese parent company of Grindr is scrambling to sell it off after a US government panel branded its ownership as a national security risk, according to reports. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has reportedly told Kunlun, a Chinese gaming company, that it must unwind its 2018 acquisition of the popular gay dating app. Kunlun was previously preparing to float Grindr on public markets, but is now searching for a buyer in order to get rid of it as quickly as possible, Reuters said. The exact nature of the the Committee’s concerns is unclear, but over the last two years it has begun to heavily scrutinise the handling of users’ personal data to Chinese firms. [/perfectpullquote]

China doesn’t allow foreign owned social media – or a lot of other things – to operate in that country. They very much prefer that ownership be local so that it can be loomed over by the state.

No, I don’t think the US is thinking along those lines. It should be good old American dating apps that middle aged men meet twinks on so that the CIA can easily have a look at said middle aged men and their habits with twinks. Rather, given the Trump Admin’s thoughts about trade wars and all that, if we can’t own part of yours then you can’t own part of ours.

For, seriously, in this day and age what national security concerns are there about who with and how anyone has sex? If, as I strongly suspect is true, being a polyamorous queer transexual with a taste for anonymous sex isn’t a bar to a career as a spy then what is there left about the subject that can or should be a secret?