Grindr Won’t Let Users Say 'No Zionists'

This is such a weird stance for American companies and politicians. It truly blows my mind. You can say whatever you want about Americans or anything here. You can even say the president is a pedophile and it's fine (even if it wasn't true) but the second you say something bad about Israel because they suck everyone starts flipping their shit.

It's like our whole country is secretly run by Israel or something.

Its like the ruling class of our country is being blackmailed by Israel.
FTFY
- No. Well, maybe, but also much worse.
How is nobody calling out the fact that millions of Americans think that creating the State of Israel is supposed to fulfill their sadistic, hateful, apocolyptic prophecy fantasy of eternal punishment for people that dare to test their fickle faith. This is a large part of why this world sucks right now. Other than this simple quagmire, world control is about the almighty profit, but this is where these Americans will act counter to profit.
You think its weird America is fascist? Have you been paying attention to anything the past forever?
It's like our whole country is secretly run by Israel or something.
Careful buddy. This is an antisemitic trope. The real reason is much simpler. America is just a really evil imperialist entity that will back a fascist settler colonial state in the middle east for geopolitical/oil reasons rather than it being controlled by Israel.
Israel has no ability to control America. Its population is too small and it is almost entirely dependent on US support. If America says jump Israel says how high. America is weird about Israel because it desperately wants to be and it desperately wants to be because the countries voiced ideals do not match is actual reality.
- I didn't say it's run by Jews I said Israel. If you haven't noticed Israel is a country that is separate from ours and has been acting horribly. I am allowed to call that out. Don't start that bullshit. Not all Jewish people agree with Israel they use that as an excuse to cover their atrocities and you are only helping them.
  If Israel has no control here why does our president do everything their president asks him to? Seems like they have some form of control even if its not stated explicitly
- Except talk bad about Israel and get blackballed or fired. Talk bad about Palestine and nothing.
- If America says jump Israel says how high.
  uh huh
This is such a weird stance for American companies and politicians. It truly blows my mind. You can say whatever you want about Americans or anything here. You can even say the president is a pedophile and it's fine (even if it wasn't true) but the second you say something bad about Israel because they suck everyone starts flipping their shit.
With you so far.
It's like our whole country is secretly run by Israel or something.
DANGER WILL ROBINSON: That's cutting it pretty darn close to the whole Jewish cabal bullshit. Your country is not secretly run by Israel. It's run by reactionary old farts, who's more afraid of being called antisemitic, than they value human rights.
- No it's not. You are equating Israel to all Jewish people. That's offensive!

That's weird. Does that mean they can't say "no rice or spice" anymore too?

Looks like the community needs a foss alternative

I think it could happen, but it would have to be a foss app and a paid service or funded by ads, because you need paid people to moderate services like that, moderation on lemmy is about civility and people being mean to eachother, but moderation on a dating app might involve dealing with sexual assault and other illegal things in a much more prominent way. Or it would have to be funded by a government or charity which is not very likely in the present.
- Could probably crowd fund professional mods and infrastructure. Was always confused that the counter culture types don't do more underground things like that over using rainbow capitalism. But I'm not part of that world so I have no real idea
Tbh it’s been terrible lately. Free services increasingly go behind a paywall, they’ve limited how many convos you can have (invisibly, they just fall off), they show you fewer and fewer people.
The fediverse could be really useful in the dating space - capitalism means they never really want you to find The One, because then you might delete the app.
- I'm thinking this could be a fedi instance a front-end app and a small subscription donation for paid moderation. Now if only I wasn't a brain damaged vibe coder with no idea where to start building out that idea
There's Alovoa. Unfortunately, last time I checked, there were not many people on there

'No bigots' should cover it, shouldn't it?

Did Grindr get paid by the ADL or something? Either way it could be bypassed by just saying "no genocide apologists" lol

"No ethnic nationalists"
- The RNC is in town but our sever isn't crashing; why's that?

Not difficult to realize why when you realize who owns it along with many of the other dating apps.

Don’t be antisymptomatic
All of them are owned by the same group of christofascists aren't they?

"no zyonists"

"no zi onists"

"no z10n15t5"

That's something that every company can easily detect.
- Yeah, but then they need to hire a guy to maintain the regex. And you could do something like "read every 3rd letter" and make that guy cry.
- And yet Grindr never manages to filter out all the bots with "0NLYFANS" in their bios

Clearly, other ideologies are also blocked then correct? Like, you can’t say, “no Christian nationalists” or “no white nationalists” or “no fascists” or “no Neo-Nazis” or “no MAGA”. Right? Right?? You have to accept and expose yourself to all dangerous ideologies equally.

from the article:
Several users received an error message that says “The following are not allowed: no zionist, no zionists,” when they tried to add the phrases to their bios on Thursday. I tested this myself on a new Grindr account, and received the same error message. I was able to add “Zionist” to my profile (without “no”), however, and could also add any phrase I could think of: “no Arabs,” “no Blacks,” “no Palestinians,” “no Muslims,” “no Christians,” “no Jews,” “no trans,” “no Republicans,” “no Democrats,” and so on. “No Zionists]” was the only phrase that was blocked in my testing.

Yeah that's fucked. If you are going to let people say "No Christians" or "No Muslims" then "No Zionists" ought to be allowed.

Zionism isn't even an actual religious belief. It is a political one. A desire for a specific outcome and policies to support it
- My autistic ass is going to be nitpicky as well. Zionism deals directly with people who identify with a religion and where they ought to live. I mean it also vaguely alludes to aspects of jewish ethnicity's since zionism likely also is concerned with athiest but ethnically jewish people unless I am mistaken. There is a lot wrapped up in it.
  Also religions have specific outcomes they desire as well.
  Regardless, my point people should be allowed to be anti-zionist on Grindr if they can be anti-other-vaguely-equivalent-things.
- So it should be even less protected
- Every single religion has extremists. Make a religion, you just made reliigious extremists. Support a religion, you support the same religion as religious extremists are supporting.
  Religions support politics, and politicians, . They have to do that to achieve theocracy.
  Every single religion tries to pull this bullshit. christians? Yep. muslims? Yep. jewish? Yep. hindu? Yep. It never ends. Keep religion very far away from everything, always. It ruins everything it touches.
that's anisemitism please ban and arrest
- I mean "No Jews" is allowed so its not even that they're worried about antisemitism.

Zionism is gay

That makes it sound appealing though

Ah, time for new lingo to pop up.

I propose we go with "no zucchinis"

It's both innuendo, and can convey the word for Zionist

In the Matrix the last human city was called Zion. they lived under the ground where it was still warm. Essentially Cave Dwellers. So just call them dwellers. "No Dwellers"
Someone unalived all these zucchinis
Not sure if you intended this double entendre but https://lgbtqia.wiki/wiki/Zucchini is already associated with platonic relationships in a queer context. Which I could see as being useful cover for a hookup app, but just making sure.
Are there platonic hookups on grindr??
No Z-words
What if we really don't like actual zucchinis? "No green summer squash" doesn't have the same ring.
Also, how are we supposed to exclude Zion Williamson fans?

Alternative phrases to use:

No reactionaries
No genocide supporters
No apartheid supprters
No IOZ/GDF supporters
Class conscious workers only

Exactly. Censorship, ultimately, doesn't work.
Remember, "the net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." While we're talking about just one website, the above quote really speaks to online culture and, perhaps, humanity in general.
I assume GDF means Genocide Defense Force, but what do you mean by IOZ?
- Israeli Occupation Zone

I bet they are fine if you say you support "settlers" though.

That term pisses me off so much. What human scum those people must be

Corporations embrace fascism as shallowly as they did DEIA and queer acceptance, but all it takes is a couple of inches of depth to drown if you fall down and become vulnerable.... which is something the businessmen and oligarchs, distracted by the incredible gains in wealth they are accruing from the firesale of the foundations of society torn down by fascists, only perceive as a slight annoyance, an ankles deep rising of water, oh no my fancy leather dress shoes are ruined!

Anti-zionism is not anti-semitism for a very simple reason, being against the apartheid state of Israel and its genocide of Palestinians has nothing to do with being against Jews or Judaism. They are seperate concepts period, end of story.

Jews or Israelis make a strange argument when they call someone from the US like me anti-semitic for being against Israel's actions. This is a circus people who grew up in the post 9/11 US know intimately, Israel is the modern post cold war colonialism of the US echoed into a different context.

Just because I do not intimately understand the full vibrant depth of history that forms the context that the countless weapon systems, bombs and associated training FROM MY COUNTRY are used to erase doesn't mean I do not understand the process of erasure and have an indisputable stake in maintaining my moral integrity given the moral weight falls directly on my country for providing the machinery for erasure.

Scholars writing about this time will draw a direct throughline from US colonialism and genocide to the genocide of Palestinians, which isn't to say Israel does not also uniquely bear a terrible weight here that will last far longer than any of our lives.

I am against anti-semitism, I despise it. So is every anti-Zionist worth their salt and if I know one thing about the activists who show up to champion these causes it is that they will not tolerate people who violate basic human decency no matter if they are on their team or not... that is PRECISELY why they showed up to the protest in the first place. Focus on them as your enemy at your peril for the rightwing is turning very clearly on judaism as a scapegoat even as we speak....

“It seems pretty explicitly pro-colonization and protecting of the ideology that genocide and ethnic cleansing are okay for certain groups to perform as long as it upholds your own personal or capitalistic interests,” Green, a Grindr user I spoke to who also saw this error message, told me. “It’s gross. And to put energy towards protecting a blatantly bigoted ideology and not put the same energy towards protecting minority groups is pathetic. So fuck Grindr and its inability to intersect queer oppression with the oppression of other groups.”

Don't mistake these words for arguing this is too complicated to understand, that we must all learn even more divisions and categories... no this is the opposite. Our voices call for a simplicity of kindness, which recognizes the foundational humanity of all before any further judgement, a virtue honored by all the worlds major religions for obvious reasons.

Zionism is not anti-semitism for a very simple reason, being against the apartheid state of Israel and its genocide of Palestinians has nothing to do with being against Jews or Judaism. They are seperate concepts period, end of story.
Judging by the rest of your comment, I think you meant anti-zionism is not anti-semitism.
With that said, I agree wholeheartedly.
- Personally I've always found it quite antisemitic to prescribe all people of the Jewish faith the opinions of the state of Israel, and in turn hold them accountable for the states actions.
  When people say anti Zionism is equivalent antisemitism that's what they are doing, and in turn removing all agency from people of the Jewish faith.
  I have yet to ask people who make the argument about this though, but I assume it'd be a shitstorm.
- oops yes thank you!

Is "no nazis" allowed?

- Is "No Hamas" allowed?

Let's take these serious for a moment and pretend that anti zionist = nazi

and zionist = jew

Does grindr really want that Jews meet up with nazis unexpectedly in a private place?

Nazis on Grindr? You must be kidding. No self respecting nazi would ever choose to be gay…
/s just in case that needed to be stated…
- They're not gay! They just happen to have SSA (Same sex attraction)
  /s
- some of the cutest furry art works were made by gay nazis
- Oh please, it's always the bible thumping hellfire preaching black man lynching baptist pastor/senator that is caught with three underage dicks in his mouth in an airport men's room. ALL nazis are gay.
People don't seem to grasp what "Nazi" actually means anymore. That these people literally want to murder others on a large scale.

What is Grindr?

It’s an app that republican politicians use to get dates while on the road campaigning or at conventions.
- Cmon, no need to associate a popular gay dating app with republicans like it's a bad thing. Enough to criticize the party for without bringing sexuality into it.
Gay hook-up/dating app that pre-dates Tinder. In fact, it inspired Tinder.
- I always thought it was the other way around, TIL!
a dating/hookup app for LGBT+ people
- i thought it was just for Gay people.

What about no apartheid?:

Maybe throw “no religious nationalists” in for good measure. State religions don’t have the best track record in the history books.
- No nationalists of any kind, no fundamentalists

I feel like they actually could make their own app with blackjack and hookers.

A dating app where you sit down and chat while playing black Jack and making bets before deciding if you're going to meet up, somehow that actually sounds more pleasant than what people have told me in their experiences on current sites.
- Words With Friends with benefits, basically
In fact, forget the app

This timid cowardice emboldens these creatures to commit genocide knowing that the West is too scared to confront them for fear of being labelled anti Semitic

People still use Grindr?

I’m tempted to go back and club penguin that shit.

What's the better alternative? 👀
- Sniffies. It’s a web app you don’t even need to install but you can pin it to your homescreen to behave like an app too.
GoP members. I recall something about higher traffic when they do conventions
Pool's still open

I better go check for myself...

And?
- Grindr police gottem ☹️

You guys are all conspiracy theorists.

What actually happened: someone who knew someone at Grindr said "man, anti-zionism is really gaining ground on Grindr, huh?" The Grindr employee said "Huh?" "Oh yeah, its like on every other profile." "Huh...."

Then a few employees chat about it, until someone mentions it to their ad exec, who says "HWAT???" The ad exec knows that the Israeli government is committing war crimes - but they also know that as soon as the right wing media picks up on this, Grindr will become the "the secret deviant app for jew-hating gay nazis", and they DO NOT want to spend their weekend handling that shit storm.

Hence the rule.

You can still say "Pro Palestine" in your bio.

I'm really confused. Do you think your theory is better?
- Morally better? I mean, I think so - wanting to stay out of a conflict, to me, seems more morally defensible than actively supporting the bad side. It isn't the perfect moral position, but I think it is better.
  More likely on a factual basis? Yes. Absolutely.
- Certainly more based on reality. OP could've also simply used a single word:
  "money"
If that were the case, the exec needs to be fired, because this is an obvious shit storm waiting to blow in from the opposite direction
- I mean, its possible you're correct. But my point is that, no, Grindr is probably not, like, run by the zionists. It's just trying to stick to a good policy for anyone to stick to - don't get involved in a conflict in the middle east.
- Oh no... Some liberals will be angry...
  Anyway.
This sounds like someone who actually did software dev
- Correct

Ok, but it doesn't say anything about "nay to ye zionists".

exactly ... just make up another code word or phrase to mean the same thing

It allows "Zionist" though so could you do "~~Zionist~~" or "~~Zionists~~" 🤔

Ż̵̢̥͚͈̰͈̾́̂̓͠i̶̟͌̽̈́̀̐ó̵̹͒̐n̴̟͍̙̘͑̽̐̀͝͠͝i̶̙̳̱̼͋̂͆̔͝ͅs̷̨̰̻͍̞̀̀̅͜t̴̨̍ in zalgo seems rather fitting 😂

Grindr is from the Jews too?!?

It’s a big group on their platform.

Lol

Why isn't this user just banned already?

To be fair, referring to someone as Zionist has long been a dog whistle to certain hateful groups. When used precisely it does not include most Jewish folks but it was commonly not used precisely. Chances have elevated in recent events that someone is accurately using the word, but even then seeing their long used lingo echoed now using the correct meaning has seemingly vindicated their long held belief.

Yeah - people who are saying "no zionists" want to say "no jews".
- It says in the article that you can still say "no Jews" and the only phrase that they found was banned was "no Zionists"
You're on the wrong site my dude