A Chinese resident uses the gay dating app Blued on his smartphone in Shanghai, China. Alamy Hong Kong/Beijing —

Two of China’s most popular gay-dating apps have disappeared from app stores in the country, reinforcing fears of a widening crackdown on LGBTQ+ groups and online content .

Blued and Finka were not available on Apple’s App Store as of Tuesday and the apps had been erased from locally adapted platforms that serve Android devices.

The Google Play Store app is blocked in China as part of the government’s vast censorship apparatus known as the ‘Great Firewall’.

China operates one of the world’s most extensive online censorship and surveillance regimes that scrubs political dissent and criticism of the ruling Communist Party’s leadership and ideologies , including a

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