ADVOCATE - Jan 16 - Into, Grindr's online LGBTQ publication, laid off its entire editorial staff and its corresponding social media team this week, because "the company will be refocusing its efforts on video." Into, launched in August 2017, had branded itself as an LGBTQ news source that targeted millennials. However, Into's editorial team found itself at odds with management in November, when one of the digital magazine's reporters called out Scott Chen, the president of Grindr, for remarks that appeared to be anti-LGBTQ. Additionally, Into made headlines in December for a commentary piece that called an Ariana Grande music video transphobic and racist. The piece sparked such a strong backlash on social media that editors had to issue an apology and remove the byline of its writer due to death threats.
219 posts categorized "Grindr"
Grindr Lays Off Its Entire "Into" Editorial Stuff
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Who Got the Most News Coverage in 2018?
OPW - Jan 13 - Every day we review the news and bubble up what we think are summaries of the most important intell in the most important news items. All year, every day. Then in January we like to do an annual review of the news and let you know who got the most coverage on OPW.news for the prior year. Subscribe here for daily updates.
Here's the rankings for who got the most press coverage on OPW.news in 2018.
- Tinder, 182 posts on OPW.news
- Bumble, 116 posts
- Match Group, 105 posts
- Facebook Dating, 58 posts
- Grindr, 40 posts
- Badoo, 33 posts
- eharmony, 33 posts
- Match, 29 posts
- OKCupid, 28 posts
- Hinge, 24 posts
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Grindr's App Status Places It Outside Section 230 Immunity, Lawyer Argues
LAW.COM - Jan 7 - Whether a website should face accountability for the actions of its users is getting new examination in a harassment suit against Grindr. Attorney Tor Ekeland described Grindr as "a targeting system" that tracked a harassment victim's geolocation despite him not having the app. But opposing counsel from Bryan Cave says even if Grindr "somehow magically tracked people," it would still get Section 230 immunity. Arguing Monday before a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, attorney Tor Ekeland asked to revive a suit in which his client alleges an ex-boyfriend created a fake Grindr account under the client's name, then used the profile to send app users to the client's house and workplace. The suit was previously tossed under immunity granted to online services for third-party created content via Section 230 of the Stored Communications Act (CDA). Ekeland said that alleged stalkers used competitors to Grindr to stalk his client, and that the competitors addressed his client's concerns right away. The lawsuit also argued that information that was used to allegedly harass the plaintiff - including "categories in its drop-down menus" portraying him "as interested in hardcore sex" - were created by Grindr and thus outside the scope of the CDA. Grindr's counsel, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner partner Daniel Waxman characterized the suit as a "straightforward CDA case."
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Grindr Harassment Suit Could Change Accountability for Tech
NBC MIAMI - Jan 5 - Matthew Herrick claimed that for months an ex-boyfriend used Grindr to harass him. The harassment continued for months, even after Herrick obtained a temporary restraining order against Grindr that required the company to disable the impersonating profiles. He continues to push back against Grindr, arguing that tech companies should face greater accountability for what happens on their platforms. If successful, the lawsuit could bring a significant legal change.
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Tinder and Bumble's Recent Advertising Efforts
NEW YORK TIMES - Dec 18 - Tinder has a new publication, Swipe Life, specializing in personal essays that reinforce the idea that dating misadventures are cool, invigorating and youthful. Other dating apps are also getting into the content business. Grindr has its own news site, Into; Hinge, as part of an ad campaign last year, published short-form fiction on walls and billboards. Tinder is the top dating app in the US and worldwide, according to App Annie. ~50% of Tinder's users are ages 18 to 25. Elie Seidman, Tinder's CEO, said that the company wants to brand itself as the leader of early-life dating. When Swipe Life began this fall, its articles sang of the exciting spontaneity of singledom. For example: "I Moved to L.A. for a Tinder Relationship That Lasted Two Weeks, But I Don't Regret It - Here's Why." Bumble's strategy seems inspired by the Forbes's annual 30 Under 30 lists. Its "Find Them on Bumble" campaign collects the 112 "most inspiring New Yorkers," and subtly links their success to Bumble.
by Jonah Engel Bromwich
See full article at New York Times
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Grindr's Director Of Communications Quit Over President's Gay Marriage Comment
INSTINCT MAGAZINE - Dec 10 - Last week, Grindr was trending after its President and CTO Scott Chen posted to Facebook that he thinks "marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman." Now in reaction to that, Grindr's communications director Landen Rafe Zumwalt, who is openly gay, has quit his job. "As an out and proud gay man madly in love with a man I don't deserve, I refused to compromise my own values or professional integrity to defend a statement that goes against everything I am and everything I believe," Zumwalt wrote through medium.com. Scott Chen explained his Facebook post: "The reason I said marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman is based on my own personal experience. I am a straight man married to a woman I love and I have two beautiful daughters I love from the marriage. This is how I feel about my marriage. Different people have their different feelings about their marriages. You can't deny my feelings about my marriage."
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Grindr, the First Big Dating App For Gays, Is Falling Out of Favor
WASHINGTON POST - Dec 7 - 2018 should have been a record year for Grindr, the leading gay dating app, which touts ~27M users. Instead, the app has received backlash for one blunder after another. Early this year, the Kunlun Group's buyout of Grindr raised alarm among intelligence experts that the Chinese government might be able to gain access to the Grindr profiles of American users. Then in the spring, Grindr faced scrutiny after reports indicated the app had a security issue that could expose users' precise locations and that the company had shared sensitive data on its users' HIV status with external software vendors. Last week, news broke that Scott Chen, the app's straight-identified president, may not fully support marriage equality. In the past several years, Grindr users have widely reported that spambots and spoofed accounts run rampant. Earlier this year, a massive study by the Center for Humane Technology found that Grindr is the No. 1 app that leaves users feeling unhappy. Among its major competitors, Grindr has the lowest score on the Apple App store: a lowly two stars.
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Head of Grindr Sets the Record Straight on His Position on Same Sex Marriage
NYDAILY NEWS - Dec 4 - Grindr president Scott Chen wrote on his Facebook page, "Some think marriage is between a man and a woman. I think so, too, but it's a personal matter." He added, "Some people think the purpose of marriage is to have your own biological children. It's a personal matter, too." The L.A.-based LGBTQ friendly social media page Into quickly seized on Chen's comments, posting that "Into has learned that President of Grindr does not support same-sex marriage, according to deleted social post." Chen acknowledged the post, but claimed his intention was to argue against those who oppose same-sex marriage in Taiwan, where he was educated and served in the military.
by Brian Niemietz
See full article at NY Daily News
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Scruff CEO: The Real Issue with Grindr Is Way Bigger Than Gay Marriage
OUT.COM - Dec 3 - President of Grindr, Scott Chen created a Facebook post where he defined marriage as a "holy matrimony between a man and a woman." Here is an interview with Scruff CEO Eric Silverberg.
Q: How you felt when the news surfaced about the President of Grindr's remarks on gay marriage?
A: It's very disappointing. As a private citizen, you certainly have your right to your private beliefs, but when a leader in the gay community says these things, they're disrespecting the decades-long work of marriage equality activists.
Q: What do you know about the owners of Grindr?
A: I know that today, Grindr is entirely owned by a Chinese company. I think what this whole incident shines a light on is just how important the identity and personal beliefs of the tech company leaders really are in 2018. That's why I'm proud that Scruff is a gay-owned business.
Q: Tell me more about how Scruff pursues a business model.
A: Some tech executives don't use the products that they're building. We here at Scruff absolutely do. That manifested in the decision we made this year to get rid of all programmatic advertising, and to forgo any kind of data integration with Facebook.
Q: Can you explain what programmatic advertising is?
A: Any time you see a banner ad in an app, your data — be it your location, your sexuality, or the app you're on — is shuttled out of the app and into something that resembles a stock exchange. In that instant, you have advertisers who are bidding on that impression. The issue now is that data doesn't just stop with the advertisers anymore.
Q: Do you believe the claims that Grindr won't allow advertisers to receive access to users' HIV statuses?
A: I think we should look at their history of decision-making. People have very good reason to be deeply skeptical.
Q: Why is Grindr so big?
A: They were simply first to market.
Q: What are your hopes for Scruff, especially in the wake of these revelations about Grindr's president?
A: My hopes for the gay community are that people become more aware of the apps that they use, and really hold their companies and their leaders to the standards that they always should've been held to.
by Phillip Picardi
See full article at Out.com
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The President of Grindr Said He's Against Gay Marriage
OUT - Nov 30 - Grindr's president and former CTO Scott Chen claimed marriage is a "holy matrimony between a man and a woman" in a deleted Facebook post, according to sources within Grindr. This isn't the first time Grindr's been in hot water with the LGBTQ+ community it serves: Earlier this year, reports surfaced that the app's parent company was selling data on users' HIV status to medical insurance companies. Long live queer media.
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The Subtle Way Dating Apps Reinforce Our Racial Biases
HUFFINGTON POST - Nov 22 - A new study out of Cornell University suggests that dating app algorithms don't do us any favors as far as sexual racism goes. To conduct the study, the researchers downloaded the 25 top-grossing apps in the iOS app store as of fall 2017, including Tinder, OKCupid, Hinge, Grindr, Meetville and Coffee Meets Bagel. Then they looked for features that could affect users' discriminatory behavior toward other users. This included terms of service, their sorting, filtering and matching algorithms and how users are presented to each other. They found that most apps employ algorithms that cater to users' past personal preferences and the matching history. So if a user had matched with white users repeatedly in the past, the algorithm was more likely to suggest more white people as "good matches" moving forward.
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Grindr And MOSAIC Release Middle East And North Africa GBTQ Survey Report
GLOBENEWSWIRE - Oct 19 - Grindr in partnership with the MENA Organization for Services, Advocacy, Integration & Capacity (MOSAIC), released the results of a new survey report "The Regional Livelihood of GBTQ Using Grindr," which captures the experiences of gay, bi, trans and queer (GBTQ) Grindr users living in the Middle East and North Africa. 71% reported that their parents and/or relatives do not know at all about their sexual orientation. 13% of respondents said their parents and/or relatives know about their SOGI; however, only 6% said their family is supportive. 64% of respondents said they either did not know or are unsure of what their legal rights are within their own local community. View the full report.
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Fuckr Developer Backs Down In Fear Of Grindr Copyright Lawsuit
TORRENT FREAK - Oct 16 - The creator of controversial third-party Grindr app 'Fuckr' has withdrawn his opposition to a Grindr copyright complaint. Grindr filed a DMCA takedown notice with Github in September, stating that Fuckr infringes Grindr's intellectual property rights. However, after initially filing a counter-notice to have his software reinstated, Fuckr's creator has now backed away, fearing a prolonged copyright battle. Released back in 2015, the Fuckr desktop app provides controversial enhanced access to Grindr. Fuckr also gives Grindr users the ability to precisely locate hundreds of other users while revealing usually hidden information such as photos, HIV status, and even preferred sexual positions.
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Adultery Decriminalized In India
INDIA TIMES - Oct 2 - Buoyed by recent Supreme Court judgements that decriminalized adultery and consensual same sex relations, extramarital dating apps are now betting big on the India growth story. Extramarital dating app Gleeden, Grindr, and matchmaking app Wingman expect significant growth in the country. Gleeden already has ~340K users in the country, up from 120K last year. Its three biggest markets are Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru with Mumbai alone having 85K users.
by Anumeha Chatuverdi
See full article at India Times
See all posts on Gleeden
See all posts on Grindr
See all posts on Wingman
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Racism On Dating Apps
THE GUARDIAN - Sep 29 - Sinakhone Keodara is considering suing Grindr for racial discrimination after he received a three-word response on Grindr: "Asian, ew gross." "Over the years I've had some pretty harrowing experiences," says Keodara. "You run across these profiles that say 'no Asians' or 'I'm not attracted to Asians'. Seeing that all the time is grating; it affects your self-esteem." It's important that dating apps take a stand on intolerant behaviour. Bumble's Louise Troen acknowledges the problem, saying: "The online space is complicated, and people can say things they wouldn't say in a bar because of the potential ramifications." Earlier this month, Grindr announced a "zero-tolerance" policy on racism and discrimination, threatening to ban users who use racist language. The app is also considering the removal of options that allow users to filter potential dates by race.
by Chris Stokel-Walker
See full article at Yahoo Finance
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Grindr Will Now Have To Sue Fuckr To Keep Controversial Tool Down
TORRENTFREAK - Sep 30 - Grindr recently filed a DMCA notice to have the allegedly-infringing Fuckr desktop application taken down from Github. The creator of Fuckr has contested Grindr's copyright claim, meaning that Grindr will now have to sue to stop it reappearing. Released back in 2015, the desktop application provides enhanced access to Grindr. However, the extra features offered by the software are controversial. It gives users the ability to precisely locate hundreds of Grindr users to an accuracy of just a few feet. In addition, Fuckr offers access to a trove of information about Grindr users not freely available, including photos, HIV status, and even their preferred sexual position. Early September, following an exposé by Queer Europe, Grindr decided to end Fuckr's party. The company filed a DMCA notice with Github, where the application's code was hosted. This resulted in Fuckr being taken down. But Grindr is still battling availability of the software.
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A third-party App Can Use Grindr To Expose Users' Exact Locations
ENGADGET - Sep 14 - According to a new investigation by Queer Europe, Grindr can still expose people's personal data through a third-party app called "Fuckr," which was released in 2015 and can locate up to 600 Grindr users within minutes. The free third party app is built on top of Grindr's private API, giving it access to the gay dating app's database. It uses a technique called "trilateration" to find users, allowing anyone with access to it a way to follow people around as they go about their day.
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Grindr Is Introducing Kindr To Fight Racism
GQ - Sep 11 - Grindr is launching its first anti-bullying initiative this month, called Kindr. The specifics around Kindr are still opaque but Landen Zumwalt, head of communications at Grindr, promises a concerted effort to better police the app's racism and harmful behavior. How users are reported and dealt with will become stronger.
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Grindr IPO Plans Shine Light On China LGBT Acceptance
BUSINESS TIMES - Sep 7 - Grindr is planning an IPO overseas. Grindr owner, Beijing Kunlun Technology, did not publicize where or when the IPO will take place. The LGBT community continues to thrive in China. Rela is one of the most popular social networking platforms that cater to the LGBT community in China. During its peak, the platform had ~5M registered users. Blued, the country's second-largest social network for the LGBT community claims to have 27M registered users. Based on the latest data, the Chinese LGBT population currently stands between 70M to 90M. The Chinese LGBT community has an annual purchasing power that stands at a massive $938B in 2017 alone.
by Vera Dee
See full article at Business Times
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Grindr To Go Public
BBC - Aug 29 - Gay dating app Grindr is going to list its shares on international stock exchanges, under a plan submitted by its Chinese parent company Kunlun Group. Kunlun Group's board said that going public would "strengthen" Grindr's competitiveness and help the business continue to develop. The Chinese tech firm originally bought a 61.5% stake in 2016 from the company's US founders. It then took full control in January.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
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