OkCupid, the online dating website that is still making headlines over its blocking of the Firefox browser to its more than five million monthly visitors, has apparently now dropped that block. The company had presented visitors who came to the site using Firefox browsers with a message denouncing Firefox maker Mozilla‘s new CEO, Brendan Eich, for his anti-gay stance and his donation to supporting the anti-gay Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage in 2008.
“Equality for gay relationships is personally important to many of us here at OkCupid,” the message had said. “But it’s professionally important to the entire company. OkCupid is for creating love. Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure.â€
Eich gave a lengthy interview to tech news site CNET, during which he said he was in talks with OkCupid and hoped they were going to remove the block. With or without it, visitors were still able to access the full site via Firefox.
“We didn’t hear about [the block] until it was up,” Eich told CNET in an interview published yesterday afternoon. “We’re talking now, because it may be they’ll take it down. They didn’t seem to be aware of the statement that Mitchell Baker made over the weekend.”
That statement, from the Executive Chairwoman of Mozilla, was fairly lengthy, but included this:
Mozilla’s commitment to inclusiveness for our LGBT community, and for all underrepresented groups, will not change. Acting for or on behalf of Mozilla, it is unacceptable to limit opportunity for *anyone* based on the nature of sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This is not only a commitment, it is our identity.
Eich continued:
As an organization, Mitchell said, Mozilla supports LGBT equality. I don’t think they heard about that. There’s a good chance that’ll come down. I can’t promise you. We’re talking to them now.
As of this afternoon the block from OkCupid appears to have been removed, but the company has not made a public statement. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment via email.
OkCupid generates over 900 million page page views monthly, according to web traffic company Quantcast. This is the message users saw until today:
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Previously:
Mozilla Anti-Gay CEO Story Explodes After OkCupid Blocks Firefox Users
Mozilla Employees Ask New CEO To ‘Step Down’ Over Prop 8 Support
Common Ground? Gay And Anti-Gay Activists Now Demanding Firefox Boycott