Religion

Since Tinder was banned in Pakistan, young singles are flocking to private Facebook groups to meet others to date, even though Facebook Dating is not available in the country.

One of the most popular Facebook groups is Two Rings, a volunteer-run matchmaking group that does not charge its users any fees. It currently has about 228,000 members, and at least 335 couples have found spouses through the group, according to news source Rest of World.

"Instead of waiting on their parents or family to find somebody, they are actually now doing it all on their own," a cofounder of a Facebook dating group for graduates of some of Pakistan’s premier business schools told Business Insider.

Match Group has won the lawsuit it brought against dating app Muzmatch for trademark infringement violation.

According to The Guardian, the UK intellectual property and enterprise court ruled in favor of Match, which owns popular apps like Tinder and Hinge. Muzmatch, a niche dating app for Muslim singles, could now be forced to change its name or pay damages, according to The New York Times.

Match Group claimed in the lawsuit that consumers might think Muzmatch was a “sub-brand” of theirs targeting Muslim daters because of its name. Deputy high court judge Nicholas Caddick QC agreed, stating that using “match” in its name “would have led some consumers to assume that the goods and services offered by Muzmatch were somehow connected with or derived from Match,” according to The Guardian.

Match Group, owner of the popular dating apps Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge, has sued dating app MuzMatch for Trademark infringement.

The online dating company said that MuzMatch, a British-based matchmaking app for Muslims, has copied their products and services, according to The Daily Mail. Match Group pointed to the use of the word “match” in the app’s metadata, which are keywords used by companies to make their products more prominent in Internet search findings. Match Group says that MuzMatch has included keywords like “match-muslim” and “uk-muslim-match,” which the company says are its registered marks that MuzMatch is co-opting for their own benefit.

MuzMatch rejects the allegations, saying that Match Group doesn’t have claim to the word “match.” The British company also has a U.S. copyright registration for the wordmark “Muzmatch” that has been in place since 2015, as well as in France and Germany.

The Vatican and Catholic Churches in the U.S. are bracing for more of its clergy members to be outed for using gay dating app Grindr.

The Pillar published a report that based on “legally obtained” data there seem to be “at least 16 mobile devices [that] emitted signals from the hookup app Grindr on at least four days between March to October 2018 within the non-public areas of the Vatican City State, while 16 other devices showed use of other location-based hookup or dating apps, both heterosexual and homosexual, on four or more days in the same time period.”

The Pillar maintains that this information was obtained through commercially available app signal data, not through hacking, and that it pulled data from rectories and other clerical housing from 2018 through 2020.

Iranian singles have a new state-approved dating app to help them find spouses, but so far, young people aren’t so excited about using it. The app is called Hamdan, which means “companion” in Persian, and was developed by a team from the Islamic Propaganda Organization.

According to the BBC, people living in Iran use dating apps, but Hamdan is the first app to be legally approved by the government. The app’s technology works like a regular dating app using AI to better understand what users are looking for and to help find matches, but the process goes beyond just matching. The app says it is “only for bachelors seeking permanent marriage,” according to reports.

Users can’t just sign up – they first have to verify their identity and undergo a psychological test before they can use the app. And when a match is found, there is a more circuitous route to actually meeting each other in person. The app introduces families, not just the singles who match, and it also provides a so-called “service consultant” to not only introduce the families, but “accompany” the couple even after they get married, for a period of four years.

Online dating company eHarmony launched an ad campaign highlighting LGBTQ dating on its app, and has received backlash from some on the conservative right, according to a report by NBC News.

The company has roots in the Christian community and has been viewed as unwelcoming to the LGBTQ community. To move past this perception, executives invested in a rebranding campaign that highlights inclusivity. The company launched its first inclusive ad featuring a lesbian couple this winter.

The ad entitled “I Scream” is part of the “Real Love” campaign, and shows the couple in their kitchen making dinner, then deciding it’s not very good and opting for ice cream on the couch. “Being honest with each other,” the voiceover says. “Saying yes to great ideas. eHarmony — here for real love.”