The Paris 2024 Olympics is kicking off and in a bid to protect athletes’ privacy, Grindr has reportedly blocked the hook-up app’s explore function in the vicinity of the Olympic Village for the duration of the Games.

With nearly 15,000 Olympians expected to live in the Village this summer, including a record number of out gay male athletes, Grindr seems to have limited user access to ‘explore’ the location.

Posts on social media from Grindr users attempting to browse around the Olympic Village show that no profiles appear as a result of the search. This is especially odd considering that the app has more than 13 million monthly users.

Grindr has a history of limiting access to Olympic Village sites, having done so at the 2008 Games to prevent users from finding athletes’ profiles and prevent them from being outed unwillingly or harassed. Several athletes were reportedly outed through the app during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, potentially prompting the supposed restrictions this year.

During the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, China, Grindr’s Director for Equality, Jack Harrison-Quintana, said that the organisation wanted the app to serve as a safe space for queer Olympians; a space where they could feel “confident connecting with one another while they’re in the Olympic Village”.

According to The Verge, a technology publication, Grindr users logging into the app from Paris’ Olympic Village will be told: “Your privacy is important to us. Our explore feature has been disabled in the Olympic Village so that people outside your immediate area can’t browse here.”

Among the Paris Olympics’ openly queer male Olympic athletes are Great Britain’s Tom Daley, Ireland’s Jack Woolley, Australia’s Robbie Manson, and Germany’s Timo Cavelius.

The Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games takes place on Friday, July 26. However, some events have already kicked off, including men’s football and men’s rugby sevens.