Consistent with the social pressure to ruin the lives of those who participated in Charlottesville, online dating site OKCupid has announced they’ve banned one of the rally speakers “for life” a mere 10 minutes after they discovered his account.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, OKCupid wrote the site was alerted that “white supremacist Chris Cantwell” was among their users. The site said his account was terminated, “[w]ithin 10 minutes” and “for life”:
We were alerted that white supremacist Chris Cantwell was on OkCupid. Within 10 minutes we banned him for life.
— OkCupid (@okcupid) August 17, 2017
OKCupid continued their statement by saying, “There is no room for hate in a place where you're looking for love.”
There is no room for hate in a place where you're looking for love.
— OkCupid (@okcupid) August 17, 2017
OKCupid then encouraged users to report people who are deemed to be “involved in hate groups” so they, too, can have their accounts terminated:
If any OkCupid members come across people involved in hate groups, please report it immediately https://t.co/K6PTo8Rtlr
— OkCupid (@okcupid) August 17, 2017
Although the OKCupid post said it would delete the accounts of people who are “involved in hate groups,” it is worth mentioning that OKCupid’s pressure is what led to the removal of Brendan Eich from Mozilla over his donation in support of Proposition 8, which was against gay marriage in California. It is also worth mentioning that people have been misidentified as protesters in the Charlottesville rally, with devastating consequences.
When Republicans and white Americans are called Nazis — on par with actual Nazis — OKCupid’s precedent of banning users for their views, no matter how heinous, sets a dangerous precedent.
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