OkCupid, the popular dating site, is not in love with Mozilla. In fact, it’s telling its users to stay away from Mozilla Firefox after the non-profit organization named Brendan Eich as its CEO.
Eich, who co-founded Mozilla and created JavaScript, is being criticized for donating money to the Proposition 8 campaign to ban gay marriage in California. Anyone opening OkCupid on Firefox received this message starting on Monday:
After that, OkCupid did not pull any punches, at one point writing, “Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure.”
The dating site then lists links to three alternate browsers: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Opera.
OkCupid was not the only one to object after Eich, who previously served as chief technology officer, was announced as CEO on March 24.
While not apologizing outright for his donation, Eich did write in a blog post on March 26 that he wanted to “express [his] sorrow at having caused pain” and that he was committed to “ensuring that Mozilla is, and will remain, a place that includes and supports everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, economic status, or religion.”
That statement from Eich prompted a backlash — from conservatives. On Sunday, Robert P. George, co-founder of the National Organization For Marriage, claimed on Facebook that Eich “caved to the pressure” from gay rights advocates by “apologizing,” and that he was deleting Mozilla Firefox from his computer.
It's not clear what will cause OkCupid — which, like Tinder and Match.com, is owned by IAC — to end its protest.
"It’s not about Eich stepping down," Sam Yagan, CEO of OkCupid, wrote to NBC News in an email. He did not elaborate further.
NBC News has reached out to Mozilla and will update the story with its response.
