Gay hookup app Grindr is currently on its Grindr Rides America bus tour for Pride Month. In other places around the world, however, the app is far from celebrated — it's banned, sanctioned, or restricted in the App Store. According to digital rights organization Access Now, Grindr is the second-most blocked messaging platform outside of India after Facebook.
In some of the areas where Grindr is banned, you can use a VPN (virtual private network) to access it. VPNs encrypt your internet traffic and data, and mask your real IP address. You can pretend to be browsing from elsewhere in the world using a VPN. Here's where you can and can't access Grindr through a VPN, and how to do so.
According to Grindr's website, the app is restricted by the governments of these places:
Indonesia
Turkey
Lebanon
Qatar
Pakistan
Jordan
United Arab Emirates
Malaysia
Grindr is sanctioned — meaning the U.S. government has restricted trade there — and thus the app isn't available in these territories:
Crimea
Syria
North Korea
Cuba
Sudan
Finally, Grindr is delisted in the App Store in Saudi Arabia and China.
You can access Grindr through a VPN in countries where it is restricted, so the first list. Grindr states on its website that VPNs have been used in these places, but there's no guarantee that they'll work. Also, as Consumer Reports investigative tech reporter Yael Grauer told Mashable in a story about using VPNs to view porn, don't rely on VPNs in severe instances, as these networks can fail.
That being said, if you want to use a VPN to access Grindr in a restricted country, here's how:
Step 1:Sign up for a VPN
ExpressVPN is one example.
Step 2:Download the VPN app to your device
Step 3:Use the VPN to connect to a server in a location where Grindr is accessible
Step 4:Visit and use Grindr
