Google has removed one of the world's largest gay dating apps from its Indonesia Play Store after a crackdown on the LGBT community by the government.

Indonesian officials had called for the tech giant to remove 73 LGBT-related applications, including dating services, from its Play Store, and urged people to shun apps that broke with cultural norms in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.

Communications ministry spokesman Noor Iza confirmed Wednesday that gay dating application Blued - which boasts more than 27 million users globally - no longer appeared in the Google Play Store available to Indonesian users.

The government's gay apps ban comes against a backdrop of growing hostility towards Indonesia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community

'There was some negative content related to pornography inside the application,' Iza told AFP.

'Probably one or some members of the application put the pornographic content inside.'

Apple's online store, however, still had the application Blued available as of Wednesday.

Google declined to say whether it would comply with the government demand to remove dozens of LGBT-related apps.

Although homosexuality and gay sex are legal in Indonesia, same-sex relationships are widely frowned upon. Public displays of affection between gay couples are almost unheard of.

Tech giant: Google complied by removing the application Blued, which boasts 27million users

Indonesian police forcibly cut the hair of a group of transgender women and told them to act like 'real men' on Sunday

In the conservative Aceh province, homosexuality is illegal as the area is ruled by Islamic law.

In Aceh over the weekend, police forcibly cut the hair of a group of transgender women and made them wear male clothing, sparking protests from rights groups.

Indonesia also has a harsh anti-pornography law that is at times used by police to criminalise members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

The governments ban on gay applications joins growing hostility towards the LGBT community in Indonesia, where the community has been targeted in raids on 'gay sex' parties in Jakarta and Surabaya.

Indonesia's parliament is reported to be debating an amendment to the criminal code that could make same-sex relationships and sex outside marriage illegal.

A survey released last week has added to fears that a wave of homophobia is sweeping the nation of more than 250 million, which has traditionally been regarded as a bastion of tolerant Islam, according to Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting.

But the poll also found that the majority of Indonesians who were familiar with the term LGBT thought individuals had a right to live in the country.