Tinder’s decision to provide users with a link to find local STI clinics was agreed in a series of “conversations” with the president of the world’s largest HIV/Aids foundation following a spat over a billboard campaign that linked dating apps with sexually transmitted diseases.
Lawyers for the dating app sent an aggressive cease and desist letter to the Aids Healthcare Foundation after the organisation put up a billboard showing silhouetted figures leaning in for a kiss – one bearing the label “Tinder”, the other “chlamydia.” A second couple on the billboard were labelled “Grindr” and “syphilis”.
Tinder’s letter, dated 18 September 2015, said the advertisement constituted “unprovoked and wholly unsubstantiated accusations … made to irreparably damage Tinder’s reputation” and demanded the billboard be taken down immediately.
According to an official from the Aids Healthcare Foundation, Tinder’s CEO Sean Rad then met with the foundation’s president Michael Weinstein, and after several months of conversation the pair came to an agreement which included a joint press release in support of sexual health, and an option for users to find local STI treatment centers, in return for the billboard’s removal.
“There was a meeting and email conversation, and it was really about what would be effective and what would help their patrons from Tinder’s side,” said Whitney Angeran, the Aids Healthcare Foundation’s senior director of public health. “They were receptive from the beginning – after we got past the cease and desist letter.”
In a statement, a representative for Tinder said: “While the CDC, who conducted the largest and most credible study on the topic, has never identified any connection that supports the idea that Tinder usage correlates with, let alone causes, an increase in STDs, we’re of course in favor of organizations that provide public education resources on the topic, and we’re happy to do our part in supporting these educational efforts.”
