BBC – Oct 30 – Some young Muslims in London are turning to speed dating to find love. A recent session was organized by Mmm Dating.
Category: Outlets – BBC
Gay Dating App Hornet to Offer “Verified” Profile Badge
Charly Lester, The Founder of Lumen Shares Her Secrets
BBC – Oct 23 – Entrepreneur Charly Lester launched a dating app for the over-50s. "Quite often I get asked why I am doing this when I am in my thirties, but you don't need to be in the target audience to understand what they need and launch a solution", she says.
Concern Over Dating Apps After Increase in Rapes in Scotland
BBC – Aug 30 – Police Scotland figures revealed ~160 people in a year reported being raped on a first or second date. Most had been talking with the perpetrator on dating apps or social media before they first met. The figure from 2018-19 equates to almost 11% of all rapes committed by someone other than a partner or ex-partner. Police have launched an awareness campaign – #Get Consent – to warn sex without consent is rape. The campaign costing £30K will feature posters in phone boxes and club washrooms and will run on social media platforms.
Google Play App Store Accused of Anti-gay Bias
BBC – Aug 16 – Gay dating app Hornet has accused Google of discrimination after its app was removed from Google's Play store several times without warning. Hornet said Google often employed moderators in Malaysia, where same-sex relationships are illegal, to vet apps. In January, gay dating app Scruff introduced stricter profile image guidelines, banning photos of men in underwear or swimwear. The app had also been suspended from Google Play several times prior to the change.
10 Years of LGBT Love: What’s Really Changed?
BBC – July 5 – The London Pride parade will take place on Saturday 6 July in central London, followed by Black Pride on Sunday 7 July in Hackney. While plenty of people head to Pride to celebrate, recent news events, including the attacks on a lesbian couple on a London bus, show why Pride is still so important for the community. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots – the ceremonial beginning of the LGBT rights movement – and the 10-year anniversary of Grindr. "Online dating and hook-up apps have been an absolute win for the LGBT community," says relationship expert Dr Darcy Sterling. One recent US study suggests that two-thirds of LGBT couples meet online. Another important shift has been the demise of gay bars and LGBT spaces. In just over a decade, from 2006 to 2017, the number of bars, clubs and pubs for LGBT people in London dropped from 125 to 53. Racism within the LGBT community is another issue that is starting to be talked about more openly. Last year, Grindr launched a campaign, Kindr, encouraging its users to be nicer to each other. The legalisation of same-sex marriage in England, Wales and Scotland in 2014 – along with ~20 other countries between 2009 and 2019 – has seen tens of thousands of same-sex couples getting hitched.
Dating App Scammers Could Be Spotted by AI
BBC – May 31 – Scammers who use dating sites to trick people into handing over cash can be spotted using artificial intelligence, research suggests. A neural network has analysed profiles, messages and images from real dating data to get better at spotting fakes. It sampled age, gender and ethnicity as well as the language people use to describe themselves. The system proved accurate at spotting scammers and fakes in 93% of cases. Computer scientists in the UK, US and Australia collaborated on the AI-based system, which found that those making fake profiles were more likely to be men (60%) and had an average age of 50.
Taiwan Legalises Same-sex Marriage
BBC – May 21 – Taiwan's parliament has become the first in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. In 2017, the island's constitutional court ruled that same-sex couples had the right to legally marry. Parliament was given a two-year deadline and was required to pass the changes by 24 May. Lawmakers debated three different bills to legalise same-sex unions and the government's bill, the most progressive of the three, was passed. It will take effect after Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen passes it into law.
Sex Attacks Involving Dating Apps on the Rise
Founder of Muzmatch: ‘Muslims Don’t Date, We Marry’
BBC – Mar 25 – Shahzad Younas is the founder and CEO of Muslim dating site and app Muzmatch. Two years ago, Shahzad was in San Fran pitching Muzmatch at a global competition to win backing from prestigious Silicon Valley investment firm Y Combinator. He opened his address to the room by saying: "Muslims don't date, we marry." Y Combinator offers financial and practical support to a number of new start-ups per year. ~13K applied at the same time as Muzmatch, and it was one of 800 whose founders were invited to pitch in person. Muzmatch was given $1.5M (£1.2M), one of 100 start-ups that got backing in 2017. Today the fast-growing company says it currently has ~1M registered users across the UK and other countries. With a second office in Bangladesh, Muzmatch operates a "freemium" business model. It is free to use its basic service, but users can pay ~£10 a month for extra features such as unlimited viewing of profiles, and having their profile seen by more people. The company says its annual turnover is now~£4.5M.