Dating site OkCupid is reaching out to its users to boycott Mozilla-owned search engine Firefox in protest at Mozilla’s new chief executive officer (CEO), Brendan Eich, who supported an anti-same-sex marriage campaign.
OkCupid members navigating to the site on a Firefox browser are met with a message encouraging them to use an alternative browser to access the site, including Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and the misspelled Internet Exploder.
“Hello there, Mozilla Firefox user. Pardon this interruption of your OkCupid experience.
Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples. We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid,” the message reads.
“If individuals like Mr. Eich had their way, then roughly eight per cent of the relationships we’ve worked so hard to bring about would be illegal. Equality for gay relationships is personally important to many of us here at OkCupid. But it’s professionally important to the entire company.”
Eich, who was previously Mozilla’s chief technology officer (CTO), was last week promoted to the position of CEO. He has previously donated US$1,000 to support a California ballot initiative which sought to ban same-sex marriage in the state, which was made public in 2012.
App development company Rarebit announced it had pulled its apps from Firefox following the announcement of Eich’s promotion.
“As a married gay couple who are co-founders of this venture, we have chosen to boycott all Mozilla projects,” said founder Hampton Catlin in an open letter to the company.
Various Mozilla employees have also spoken up on Twitter criticising Eich’s promotion.
Speaking in his defence, Eich said: “I am committed to ensuring that Mozilla is, and will remain, a place that includes and supports everyone”, and posted a blog on his personal site last week addressing the backlash. He outlined his plan to support LGBT-friendly policies at Mozilla and expressed “sorrow at having caused pain”.
“Mozilla supports equality for all, including marriage equality for LGBT couples. No matter who you are or who you love, everyone deserves the same rights and to be treated equally,” said a Mozilla spokesperson in a statement. “OkCupid never reached out to us to let us know of their intentions, nor to confirm facts.”
