Dating site OkCupid advises users not to use Mozilla Firefox

The dating website OkCupid discourages users from using the Mozilla Firefox browser. The reason the site gives for this is that the new CEO of Mozilla in 2008 financially supported a political campaign against same-sex marriage.

Firefox-using visitors to OkCupid are now greeted with a message before they can actually use the website. “Politics is not normally the business of a website, but if Mr. Eich has his way, eight percent of the relationships that we have worked so hard to make possible will soon be illegal.”

Equality for same-sex relationships is important personally to many OkCupid employees, according to the dating site, “but it is also professionally important for the entire company.” OkCupid recommends that users download Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Opera. However, visitors who see the message can simply go to the front page of OkCupid via a link below the message, regardless of which browser they are using.

In 2008, Brendan Eich gave $1,000 in financial support to California’s Proposition 8, which aims to deprive gay couples of the right to marry. Within Mozilla, employees were already concerned about Eich’s appointment, and now OkCupid is joining them. Mozilla employees have previously called for Eich to resign after Eich’s appointment, and several leaders of the non-profit company have subsequently resigned.