- Sunday, May 05, 2024
By: Pramod Thomas
FOLLOWING an online petition by Dallas-resident Hetal Lakhani, Asian marriage website Shaadi.com, has removed a skin tone filter option. The dating site said that the filter “was not serving any purpose” and was a “product debris we missed removing”.
Lakhani started the online petition after speaking to another user, who questioned the filter in light of anti-racism protests.
The skin tone filter asked users to select how dark or light their skin is under the option. Users could search for potential partners by the skin tone.
However the website claimed that the filter didn’t work and searches would show all matches of all skin tones.
Meghan Nagpal was using the website to find a potential life partner who would also be of Indian origin. She discussed the complexion filter on a Facebook group, where Lakhani was also a member.
According to Lakhani, she was shocked when heard about the option.
“Within 14 hours we had over 1,500 signatures. People were so glad we were raising the issue,” she told BBC.
Later, Shaadi.com responded to them on Twitter claiming it was a “blindspot” they had missed on their site and the filter was removed overnight.
Lakhani said that dating apps and websites shouldn’t support individual bias, and a company with international reach should be more responsible.
