Now that Tinder is linking its users to the Healthvana STD testing locator, the AHF says it plans to remove billboards and advertisements associating Tinder with STDs.
– In a move Engadget says will help the company "save face," Tinder has added links to an STD testing locator on its dating app and site, ending a monthslong fight with a nonprofit provider of HIV health care and prevention services, Reuters reports. The new locator powered by Healthvana can be accessed via a link in the site's health and safety section, as well as in the FAQ on the mobile app. "Regular testing is critical to staying on top of your health and helping prevent the spread of STDs," the site reads before directing users to the locator, the addition of which Reuters notes was key in getting the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to pull its aggressive ad campaign against Tinder. That campaign, which Engadget notes was designed to get users to seek out testing for possible venereal diseases, has included giant billboards erected in LA and NYC that link Tinder and gay social network Grindr to such STDs as chlamydia and gonorrhea. Now that Tinder has included the Healthvana locator, the foundation says it will take the billboards down and nix any ads bad-mouthing Tinder. "While the CDC … 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," Tinder said in a statement Thursday, per Reuters. (In a recent magazine profile, Tinder's CEO talks marriage, sexting, and … living with his parents.)