The People vs Grindr - my ongoing saga in Europe

[joizy]

I’m putting this in the Europe forum because this is happening to me in Italy, and apparently there are some very strong consumer protection laws here that we don’t have in freedumb loving USA. Ironically, my ban probably also happened because I am in Europe, but that’s another story.

I’ve been using AI - Gemini, Chat GPT and Claude for my legal resources. I also found another AI tool on Chrome that gave me an additional step to take that the others missed (Grindr legal). It’s day 8 of my being shut out of my account. Still fighting the fight. Claude wrote this summary. Read on…

Grindr Banned Me Without Cause — Here’s How to Fight Back (and the Agencies That Can Help)
Hi all — sharing my experience in case it helps anyone else who’s been arbitrarily banned by Grindr while still holding an active paid subscription.
What happened:
My account was banned by what appears to be an automated system, likely triggered by location changes while traveling internationally. I had not violated any community guidelines. In fact, after I submitted an appeal, a Grindr support representative confirmed in writing that I had not broken any community guidelines — yet the account remained restricted anyway, with vague language about “protection.”
I am a long-term Grindr Xtra subscriber with a paid annual membership. Denying service on a paid account, without cause, is a breach of contract — and potentially a violation of multiple consumer protection and digital services regulations.
The regulations Grindr may be violating:
    •    EU Digital Services Act (DSA): Platforms must provide transparent, meaningful explanations for account restrictions and offer effective redress mechanisms.
    •    GDPR: Users have the right to access all personal data held about them.
    •    California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): Same data access rights apply to California residents.
    •    General consumer protection law: Charging a subscription fee while denying service without cause is an unfair business practice.
If this has happened to you, here’s where to file:
🇺🇸 California Attorney General (US users)
https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company
🇮🇹 AGCOM (Italy / EU users — Digital Services Coordinator)
https://www.agcom.it
🇪🇺 EU DSA Complaints (European Commission)
CNECT-DSA-COMPLAINTS@ec.europa.eu
🇪🇺 EDSR (European Digital Services Regulator)
dsa@edsr.eu
📱 Apple App Store Review
Leave a factual review on Grindr’s App Store listing — Apple monitors these.
Data access request:
Send a formal CCPA/GDPR data access request to privacy@grindr.com demanding all personal data, photos, chats, and contacts associated with your account. They have 45 days to comply under CCPA.
Follow the fight:
I’m documenting this publicly on X at @peoplevsgrindr — daily updates, regulatory filings, and resources for other affected users.
Happy to answer questions. You shouldn’t lose access to a service you’re paying for without cause or recourse.

 

[joizy]

My pressure campaign is working, but Grindr is still being ridiculous. 
 

A Grindr support rep responded to my emails saying they cannot restore my account because it was flagged for “suspicious activity”. The suspicious activity was me traveling and logging in from various places across Northern Italy. The worst part of this, is I finally met a really hot guy in Bolzano with a beautiful dick. He was going to come back for round 2 on Friday. I was banned right after he left my Airbnb that Wednesday.

Anyway, Grindr came up with this ingenious solution. Since I have a subscription valid until December 2026, I could just log into my account and transfer the subscription. But I am banned, so that is physically impossible.

I’m keeping the heat on, rejecting their silly offers and hoping the regulators eventually step in and make them do the right thing. The other danger here is if I go ahead with their suggestion of creating a new account (I need a new email address), my device could still be flagged and I could be immediate banned once I log in.

I’m not backing down.

If this has happened to you, or if it does happen (it is more likely now that they are using AI), don’t give in. I’ve found hundreds of guys on X, Reddit, Quora and other fora who have been banned and don’t know why. No wonder Grindr sucks so much. The bots have taken over and legitimate users are getting banned.

 

[joizy]

Still fighting my ban by Grindr. They destroyed their own pretext by writing to me and letting me know I can restore assured that no one tried to hack my account and my data is safe. Phew! Now, if only I could access it. I’ve lost count of how many violations they have on multiple counts. Here’s Rachel telling me she’s sorry to see me go and instructing me on how to delete my account while ignoring the fact that I cannot access it. In Florence now. Maybe by the time I leave Italy, I’ll have regained access again.

[joizy]

She completely contradicts Eva’s reasoning for now allowing me to access my account. We’ve entered Kafka territory here.

[captainmick]

Just register a new account with a different email address and move on.  Simple.  This trivial battle you are fighting and posting about can’t be good for your health

[joizy]

7 hours ago, captainmick said:

Just register a new account with a different email address and move on.  Simple.  This trivial battle you are fighting and posting about can’t be good for your health

"Moving on" isn't an option even if I wanted it to be. Big Tech uses advanced device fingerprinting (IMEI, IP, Apple ID tokens, and hardware IDs). If you try to create a new profile on a flagged device, the automated system insta-bans the new account immediately.

This may seem trivial to you, but it isn’t for me. I have a paid subscription and have lost access to all of my contacts, photos, etc. 

And thanks for your concern, but I am quite healthy.

[Travelingguy]

Can you do a charge back with your credit card?

[joizy]

On 5/20/2026 at 10:49 PM, Travelingguy said:

Can you do a charge back with your credit card?

That’s my nuclear option. I’m saving that for when I return to the US. At that point, I think I’ll be done. I don’t think they will restore my account or whitelist my devices. I pay for Grindr Xtra because I can’t stand the ads, and $99.99/year is worth it for the hookups I manage to score. If I wanted to create a new account and a new subscription, I think I’d need a new device, new email (they already told me I need that) and even a different phone number because everything associated with my account has been tagged by them simply because I was logging in from multiple cities across Italy and that was deemed “suspicious”. 

But yes, to answer your question - a credit card chargeback is one of my options. Filed with the BBB the other day. Laws are stricter here in Europe and I have more protection, but bureaucracy is slow, and I doubt anything will get fixed while I’m here.

If anyone has alternatives to Grindr that work here, please let me know.

[joizy]

Heard from Grindr again. They said my email address may have been pawned and this was all for my protection. I checked the link they provided and the email address I use for my account was pawned, in 2019, but Canva, a graphic design website. Has nothing to do with the current ban which was triggered by a bot that noticed I’d been signing in from multiple cities across northern Italy. Getting tired of waiting, I decided to try to create a new account on my iPad with an email address I have never used anywhere. Instantly banned. The issue is not my email address. It’s my devices. They have locked me out of creating a new account and accessing my paid subscription, all due to a sensitive bot that doesn’t know what it’s doing. Kafka never could have dreamed this scenario up. Is this our new world?

[bkkmfj2648]

18 hours ago, joizy said:

If anyone has alternatives to Grindr that work here, please let me know.

Hi @joizy, I am so sorry that you are having all of these problems with Grindr.  I am not a big fan of Grindr - as it has the most friction out of all the apps that I use and consequently I use it the least.  It is also the most expensive app when compared to the other apps that I use.

When I lived in Italy for 13 years - May 1999 - Jan 2009 and then again from 2012 - 2016, my primary app to use to meet and connect with the local guys was PlanetRomeo.  On my phone, I installed the Romeo Uncut version which gives you expanded access to include the MB escorts.  

I also used the popular me2.it site - as that was a home grown Italian created cruising / meetup site.  Unfortunately it died around year 2017. 

But its successor Gay.it, https://www.gay.it/ , a gay forum, seems to still be popular. 

Also, during the years that I lived in Rome, I organized many hookup events via the http://circolodelleseghe.it/  CDS site   which is unfortunately no longer operational. I used to organize some of the CDS events at the

Il Diavolo Dentro Club in Rome - because the CDS parties that I organized became too big for my Rome apartment.  https://www.ildiavolodentroclub.com/  I see that this club is still operational in Rome and is still organizing its theme events:  https://www.ildiavolodentroclub.com/serate-ed-eventi

Back when I lived in Rome they gave me Monday nights (a slow night for them) to organize my CDS (circle jerk) events.

 

Also, back in those years, https://gaydar.com/ was still semi popular.

I also lived in Budapest, and similar to Italy, PlanetRomeo was my primary app that I used to hook up with the local Hungarians.  Similar to Italy, Hungary has its own locally created sites for in-country hookups, such as RosszLanyok at: https://m.rosszlanyok.hu/

RosszLanyok is primarily an escort hookup site for heterosexuals, but it also has a smaller gay/bi escort hookup functionality. If you use this site, enter into the section with the label = Fiúk - as that is the word in Hungarian for men.

 

@joizy, I took this opportunity to ask Grok what are the most popular apps to meet other guys and it produced the below list.  Unfortunately, it seems that since I left Italy in 2016 that Italy has shifted to Grindr - as Grok is saying that it is now the number 1 app used to meet other guys.

I hope that this additional information will help you get the most of your remaining time in Italy.