Grindr Endorses Republican-Backed App Store Age Verification Bill Amid LGBTQ+ Censorship Concerns

On December 2, 2025, Grindr published a blog post announcing its support for the App Store Accountability Act , positioning itself among major technology companies backing the measure. The bill, introduced to Congress by Republican Representative John James and Republican Senator Mike Lee, aims to establish a unified age-verification system at the app-store level rather than requiring individual apps to implement their own verification processes.

Joe Hack, Grindr's head of Global Government Affairs, articulated the company's rationale in the blog post, emphasizing that keeping minors off the platform is a priority. "Grindr is only for adults aged 18 and over. Keeping minors off our platform is a top priority. We invest significant resources including an age gate, device-level bans, human moderation, proprietary AI tools, and partnerships with child-safety organizations to prevent and remove underage users," Hack wrote.

According to Hack, the ASAA approach is preferable to existing international models because it centralizes verification rather than fragmenting it across multiple platforms. "This approach, supported by nearly 90% of parents, is safer and more consistent than requiring users to verify their age separately across many apps. By contrast, the UK and EU are moving toward fragmented rules that force adults to share sensitive personal information with thousands of apps, creating unnecessary privacy and safety risks," he stated.

Grindr is not alone in backing the legislation. The bill has garnered support from major technology companies including Meta, Snap, and X. The ASAA "creates a single, secure age-verification process at the app-store level and allows developers to receive a verified age signal," according to the bill's framework.

Senator Mike Lee has expressed confidence in the legislation's prospects. "I don't believe that there's anything unlawful, unconstitutional, or otherwise problematic about this legislation. There's certainly no reason to delay," Lee told The Verge. The bill is expected to be debated during a House committee meeting.

The ASAA differs significantly from other proposed online safety measures, most notably the Kids Online Safety Act , which has drawn substantial criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates and digital rights organizations. While Grindr supports the ASAA's targeted approach to age verification, the broader legislative landscape includes proposals that advocates argue could endanger LGBTQ+ communities.

Critics have raised concerns that KOSA's "duty of care" approach could lead platforms to over-moderate content, potentially restricting access to LGBTQ+ information and resources. Some observers argue that legislation framed around child safety could provide conservative organizations with tools to suppress content related to LGBTQ+ issues, reproductive justice, feminism, and equal rights.

Grindr's support for ASAA reflects a strategic distinction: the company argues that app-store-level verification addresses age assurance in a more targeted manner by standardizing verification through existing platforms rather than regulating speech or content moderation practices. This approach, proponents contend, avoids the broader regulatory mechanisms that could enable censorship.

The debate over age verification has already played out internationally, with mixed results. Earlier in 2025, the United Kingdom implemented age-verification requirements through its Online Safety Act, which applies to platforms hosting adult content, including Grindr. Under the UK legislation, platforms that fail to implement ID-verification systems—such as facial recognition, credit or debit card verification, or other forms of identification—face substantial fines.

However, the UK implementation has proven difficult to enforce and has met resistance from individuals concerned about privacy implications. The requirement to provide government-issued identification or submit to facial scans has sparked opposition from digital rights advocates and users wary of sharing sensitive biometric data. This real-world experience informs the debate over the ASAA, with proponents arguing that app-store-level verification avoids the privacy risks associated with fragmented, app-by-app verification systems.

Despite Grindr's framing of the ASAA as a child-safety measure distinct from broader online safety legislation, critics remain concerned about the potential for age-verification bills to facilitate censorship. Internet culture expert and tech journalist Taylor Lorenz has warned that similar legislation could strip anonymity from the internet and concentrate power among large technology companies while endangering LGBTQ+ youth.

Lorenz has specifically critiqued the UK's Online Safety Act as a cautionary example, arguing that it has been "used to enact harsh controls over what can and cannot be said online, all under the guise of 'child safety'and curbing 'misinformation.'" This concern reflects broader anxieties within LGBTQ+ communities about how age-verification and online safety frameworks could be weaponized against marginalized groups.

Some critics have accused similar bills of being designed to censor LGBTQ+ content, with a petition to repeal the UK Online Safety Act arguing that "the scope of the Online Safety Act is far broader and restrictive than is necessary in a free society." These concerns underscore the tension between child-protection goals and the risk of collateral censorship affecting adult LGBTQ+ expression and community formation.

Senator Mike Lee's support for the ASAA marks a shift in his position on age-verification legislation. Lee previously voted against an earlier version of KOSA, a decision that prompted criticism amid the polarized debate over online age verification. His backing of the ASAA suggests that he views the app-store-level approach as addressing his concerns about the broader regulatory mechanisms embedded in other proposals.

The timing of Grindr's endorsement reflects the platform's strategic positioning as both a business entity and a company serving an LGBTQ+ user base. By supporting targeted age-verification legislation while remaining distinct from broader online safety measures, Grindr attempts to balance its operational interests in preventing underage access with its responsibility to protect LGBTQ+ users from censorship and surveillance.

As the ASAA moves through Congress, the debate will likely intensify around whether app-store-level age verification truly represents a narrower, safer approach to child protection or whether it serves as a gateway to broader regulatory frameworks that could restrict LGBTQ+ expression and community access.