Grindr owner selling app after questions from US panel: report

The Chinese company that owns Grindr is seeking a buyer for the gay dating app amid scrutiny from a U.S. government panel, according to Reuters.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has notified Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. that its ownership of the West Hollywood-based app raises national security concerns, according to the news service. 

{mosads}Kunlun announced preparations for an initial public offering of Grindr last August, according to Reuters, but moved instead after CFIUS’s intervention toward an auction process that would have maintained its ownership of Grindr for a longer period of time.

CFIUS’s specific concerns with Kunlun’s ownership, and whether the company made any attempt to resolve them, was unclear, according to Reuters. Neither CFIUS nor Kunlun immediately responded to a request for comment from The Hill.

The committee rarely intervenes in an existing acquisition, Reuters noted, adding that Kunlun’s two deals to acquire Grindr in 2016 and 2018 were completed without review by CFIUS.

The app drew federal scrutiny last year in the wake of a report that it shares self-reported data on users’ HIV status.

“Simply using an app should not give companies a license to carelessly handle, use, or share this type of sensitive information,” Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote in a letter to the company.