With over seven million Muslims worldwide seeking a husband or wife, the dating app “Salams” aims to help form families based on Islamic principles, by facilitating introductions between users based on information they provide about themselves.
However, Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of the company “Match Group” which recently acquired the app, has sparked outrage on social media due to his support for Israel.
Salams new owner faces backlash
An American businessman with a degree in Politics and Economics from Harvard University, Rascoff founded his first company, hotwire.com, in 1999 at the age of 24.
Specializing in tourism, the company quickly collapsed following the repercussions of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
He then created the real estate marketing website Zillow, which marked the beginning of a successful new era in the world of finance and business for him, due to his close ties with the US administration during Donald Trump’s first term as president.
This ultimately led to him becoming the CEO of “Match Group.”
Rascoff recently quietly acquired the “Salams” app, triggering a significant uproar on social media due to his public support for the Israeli occupation.
In March 2024, he posted on LinkedIn, expressing his pride in supporting a campaign by the founders of “Ohana” to help cover the relocation costs of Jewish volunteers participating in the genocide in Gaza.
The app’s owner shared a link on his social media accounts leading to an online donation campaign on GoFundMe, which states that hundreds of Israelis in the US went to occupied Palestinian territories to serve in the Israeli army after October 7, 2023.
The campaign’s role was to pay their home rent for the duration of their time in Gaza, while also collecting what resembled a monthly pension for them upon their return, as a tribute to their extermination of Palestinians.
Quiet acquisition of the Salams app leads to user concerns
The Salams app was mentioned only once by Match Group in its earnings report issued on February 4th, which detailed the company’s financial results for the quarter.
Concerns surrounding the Muslim dating app centered around its secretive acquisition process and Rascoff’s leadership on online forums, according to the “Turkey Today” newspaper.
The report indicated that discussions and promotions related to Salams are expected to be banned.
This prompted a number of users to call for a boycott of the app and explore alternative platforms for matchmaking, distancing themselves from a CEO involved in the killing of Palestinians.
Rascoff’s political background has also sparked further controversy.
Between 2020-2022, he was a board member of “Palantir,” an American company specializing in surveillance and data analysis with ties to law enforcement and military intelligence agencies.
The lack of transparency surrounding his company’s acquisition of the dating app has led to political repercussions due to his affiliations, further increasing suspicions among Muslim users.
An uncertain future
The Salams app was first launched in 2015 under the name “Minder,” positioned as a leading platform for single Muslims seeking marriage and building secure relationships.
It remains unclear whether the acquisition deal, led by a businessman who supports the Israeli occupation, will be followed by operational changes or if its features will remain the same.
A former Salams user explained on X that they had blacklisted the app from their weekly discussions about marriage services and general conversations about Islamic marriage, due to a significant clash between the company’s values and their Arab and Islamic principles concerning the oppression of Palestinians.
