The annual Two Sessions political meetings in Beijing have been accompanied by the traditional blanket of controls to avoid outbreaks of visible public dissent, on- or offline. This year, these measures include restrictions on changes to display names or profile pictures on Blued and Finka, two gay dating apps. Similar blocks have been imposed in the past on other platforms for periods surrounding particularly sensitive occasions such as June 4 or sessions of the Party’s National Congress (distinct from the National People’s Congress, a state event comprising one of the Two Sessions). Their new deployment during the relatively ceremonial Two Sessions has triggered suspicion at the possible expansion of such special measures, though its limited scope—both Blued and Finka are owned by the same parent company—may suggest pre-emptive action taken on the platforms’ own initiative.

The Guardian’s Amy Hawkins reported on the broader “stability maintenance” regime surrounding the meetings:

Security is heightened. Extra uniformed personnel have been deployed to stand guard on Beijing’s bridges – lest anyone attempt a stunt inspired by Peng Lifa’s protest at Sitong Bridge ahead of the 20th party congress in 2022. Guards at busy subway stations subject commuters to random scans of their identification cards.

Virtual private networks – apps used to tunnel through the firewall of internet censorship – slow down, as the authorities try to tighten their grip on the exchange of information with the outside world. It is imperative to the Communist party that the parallel sessions of the “Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference”, an advisory body, and the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber-stamp parliament, run smoothly. Put together, the meetings are known as the Two Sessions, and represent the most important annual event in China’s political calendar. [Source]

The profile change blocks were highlighted on X by Teacher Li on Monday. Users reportedly received notifications such as the following, attributing the temporary change to “technical upgrades”:

Dear Blued users, greetings! We will be carrying out technical upgrades between 00:00 on March 3 and 23:59 on March 8. The following functions will be affected: suspend the modification of nicknames and signatures. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, and appreciate your understanding and support! [Chinese]

A set of leaked internal corporate directions published by CDT in 2022 relayed instructions for similar temporary restrictions. These similarly applied to profile changes as well as new users’ profiles, emoji, gifs, and other functions, and ordered the use of “strategic phrasing” such as “upgrades/maintenance/improvements” rather than “supervisory requirements” or “sensitive period”:

Urgent! Network control notice—network control arrangements for 20:00 on June 2 to 08:00 on June 6

@Everyone, hello, we have received a notice from supervisors in Shenzhen and Xiamen, the specific requirements are as follows:

1. Customization function restrictions and content self-examination for 20:00 on June 3 to 20:00 on June 5 (network control period)

• All games must shut down customization features for all users including [changes to] display names and avatars, chat, and so on. Newly registered accounts can use default settings for display names, avatars, in-game vocalizations (random display names, random avatars, default vocalizations, etc)
• Forums and communities must bar users from changing avatars, display names, user profiles, etc. Other user-posted content must be individually inspected before publication; if this is not possible, these functions must be shut down.
• Self-inspection and usage blocks for sensitive content: all game forums and communities must conduct self-examination for emoji packs and other material incorporating candles, tanks, “89,” “64,” or potentially component elements (numbers, gifts, pictographs, audiovisual material). If these are found, please block their use.

2. Content inspection filtering and emergency duty for 20:00 on June 2 to 08:00 on June 6 (strict examination duty period)

• Content security platforms will coordinate to adjust strategy for strictly intercepting and attacking sensitive content
• Those that have not already implemented content security measures must, outside the aforementioned network control period, strengthen checks on newly registered users’ display names, avatars, and user profiles; step up content monitoring; and increase the frequency of inspections of user-posted content such as chat messages, forum posts, etc.
• During the strict examination duty period, all project teams are requested to make arrangements and contingency plans for staffing schedules. Throughout the Dragon Boat Festival holiday period, each shift must have at least two staff members constantly reachable by phone and able to respond to supervisory instructions or sudden incidents within 5-10 minutes.

3. Related announcements and compensation

• External announcements: notices such as product announcements, emails, etc. [about the above changes and restrictions] may not include terms such as “supervisory requirements,” “sensitive period,” etc.: use strategic phrasing like “game function upgrades/maintenance/improvements.”
• Reward/compensation distribution: Please refer to previous compensation [guidelines] for the January 30 network control [period]. (June 2, 2022) [Chinese]

Similar controls had also been introduced on Weibo, WeChat, and Alipay during the Party’s 19th National Congress in October, 2017, “in order to provide users with a better experience on our platform.”

At Rest of World in October 2023, Viola Zhou and Andrew Deck described how Blued had navigated the sensitive terrain of LGBTQ+ politics in China over the previous decade:

Blued, China’s most popular gay dating app, has set its sights on becoming the world’s largest social network for the LGBTQIA community, starting with an expansion in Southeast Asia and the U.S. But back home, Blued is facing growing uncertainty due to China’s tightening control over LGBTQIA content, and growing competition for younger users from other platforms.

Launched in 2012 by entrepreneur Ma Baoli, better known by his alias Geng Le, Blued has since deftly navigated China’s precarious political environment for LGBTQIA communities to become the country’s most used gay dating app. A central part of Blued’s strategy has been to offer HIV prevention and sexual health services that align with state public health initiatives, raising awareness of LGBTQIA issues, all the while steering clear of rights-based advocacy. Blued has survived, even as other queer dating apps in China have shut down: Competitors such as Zank were forced to close, and the lesbian-focused app Rela was pulled twice from Chinese app stores.

[…] The strategy shift [toward international markets] comes as the Chinese government intensifies crackdowns on LGBTQIA-focused organizations, events, and social media accounts, making it difficult for Blued to grow its business domestically. The company shut down its surrogacy service BluedBaby, which connected gay men in China with California-based surrogacy agencies, in the wake of a headline-making surrogacy scandal in 2021.[Source]