Tanzania blocked Grindr

As of 21st March 2023, OONI data suggests that Tanzania started blocking access to Grindr — the world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people. Recent data suggests that the block remains ongoing.

The following chart aggregates OONI measurement coverage from the testing of www.grindr.com on 16 networks in Tanzania between 16th January 2023 to 23rd November 2023.

As is evident, the testing of www.grindr.com previously showed that the site was accessible in Tanzania, and mainly started presenting anomalies from 21st March 2023 onwards. The fact that most measurements thereafter continued to present anomalies provides a signal of Grindr blocking. The block is further suggested by the presence of anomalies on at least 6 networks, but it’s worth noting that the block does not appear to be implemented on all networks in Tanzania.

Most OONI measurements show that access to Grindr is blocked by means of TLS interference. Specifically, OONI data shows the timing out of the session after the ClientHello message during the TLS handshake. Recent OONI data suggests that the block remains ongoing.

If you are in Tanzania, you can help test Grindr and contribute more measurements by running OONI Probe.