Gay Dating App Jackd Comes Under Fire
Contributed by: kellyseal on Friday, March 26 2021 @ 10:09 am
Last modified on Friday, March 26 2021 @ 10:29 am
Gay dating app Jack’d sent a notification to all of its users that read “All Waves Matter” as a marketing tactic to encourage them to engage on the app. The company came under fire because this was interpreted widely as insensitive to the Black Lives Matter movement.
On Jack’d, virtual “waves” can be sent between users to express interest in one another. According to Insider[*1] , when users of Jack’d got this notification, they were understandably upset at the reference to “All Lives Matter” – the phrase used by those who opposed the Black Lives Matter movement.
Jack’d has long marketed itself as a more progressive dating app, noting on its website that it is the "most diverse community for gay, bi, trans, and queer people," and is used overwhelmingly by people of color, which make up about 80 percent of its user base.
The company apologized for the notification, stating over Twitter: "Hey everyone, we saw the notification too...and we're working on getting to the bottom of how this happened. In the meantime, we are sincerely sorry. That statement is not, nor has it ever been our stance on the matter."
Many dating apps have included filters to search for matches based on ethnicity, but in June 2020, expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, Jack’d and Scruff (both owned by Perry Street Software), announced that they would remove these filters. Insider noted that Scruff put out a statement at the time saying they were committed to making "product improvements that address racism and unconscious bias on our apps."
After the controversial notification was sent, Jack’d users weren’t so sure of the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and took to social media to express their frustration.
Insider reported that Jack’d user Kodi Seaton expressed his concern with Jack’d and their notification, saying: “Brands need to stop trying to be so f-----g cute when it comes to social issues. Period.” This tweet got him blocked by the Jack’d official Twitter account, he said, noting that “they use black bodies to sell and promote their product.” He also said, “You can’t just value Black bodies. You also have to value our voices.”
Other users have voiced their frustration along with Seaton and are skeptical that this was a mistake or oversight as Jack’d claims.
According to Pink News[*2] , Jack’d put out another statement to try to explain what happened: “The writing process for marketing communications at Jack’d involves brainstorming, workshopping, and approval before messages are sent.” It went on to say: “This draft should have been disqualified during this session, but was mistakenly added to a list of approved messages.”
Jack’d said that it had stopped the notifications three hours after the first ones were sent out. “Moving forward, we are working to ensure that our entire team has a common understanding of the sociopolitical issues affecting all of our global members,” the company added.