Not too soon after Grindr users reported that the phrase "no Zionists" triggers an error message when they try to put the phrase in the bio section of their profile, the app reversed its stance.
In a statement to Out, Grindr said that the policy change was "implemented following user escalations around its potentially inflammatory nature." However, a spokesperson for the app confirmed that they regularly examine its moderation policies and said that the company "recently decided to reverse this one upon review.”
The app is once again allowing the phrase after 404 Media reported that the app banned it and still allowed users to put words like "No FFA (fat, femmes, or Asians)," a common phrase used to discriminate against other users and other exclusionary language.
It's unclear when the ban on the "no Zionists" phrase started, but users have reported seeing the phrase on the app in the past year. A Zionist refers to a person who supports the belief that all Jews constitute one nation; since the war between Israel and Gaza began in 2023, many supporters of Palestine have been vocal in opposing Zionism as a political and ideological movement. But some Zionists have framed this opposition as antisemitic.
There is no specific ban against "no Zionists" in the app's terms of service, but the terms do note that users are not allowed to "post, store, send, transmit, or disseminate any information or material which a reasonable person could deem to be objectionable, defamatory, libelous, offensive, obscene, indecent, pornographic, harassing, threatening, embarrassing, distressing, vulgar, hateful, racially or ethnically or otherwise offensive to any group or individual, intentionally misleading, false, or otherwise inappropriate, regardless of whether this material or its dissemination is unlawful.”
The app has long been criticized for allowing discriminatory phrases that are passed off as "preferences" based on race, and in recent years, the company has made moves to try to combat this by removing the ethnicity filter in 2020.
This story has been updated to reflect Grindr's decision to reverse the ban on including "no Zionists" in profiles.
