This article is about the dating app for American conservatives. For the dating website for highly educated individuals, seeThe Right Stuff (dating web site). For other uses, seeThe Right Stuff.
The Right Stuff was founded byJohn McEntee, Daniel Huff,[6][7] and Isaac Stalzer.[8] Peter Thiel funded The Right Stuff with aseed round investment of $1.5 million.[4][9]The New York Times reported in February 2022 that Thiel was funding the app as part of a larger effort to also finance "hard-right" political candidates withTrumpian views (though Thiel would later back away from this strategy).[10][4][11]
The Right Stuff is part of a larger trend among conservatives to create alternatives to a media culture they feel is dominated by the political left.[12]
The app was launched on September 30, 2022.[1]The Daily Beast reported that it generated 6,000 and 7,000 downloads in its first two days on theApple App Store, before falling to 1,000 per day between October 8 and 10.[1][13]
The app has a number of features intended to weed outinternet trolls, such as by being invite-only, and also requiring manual approval of each new user by the company itself. The app also has terms and features intended to enforce its political leanings, such as by prohibiting mentions of same-sex relationships (despite the app being funded by Thiel, a married gay billionaire.)[14][15]
Its tagline is "A dating app for the right wing" and "Profiles without Pronouns."[16] A promotional video featuring Ryann McEnany, the sister of former White House press secretaryKayleigh McEnany, was released in August 2022.[17][18]
The app received mainly negative reviews from users,[14][19][1][20][21] with a 2.4 star rating in the Apple App Store as of October 4, 2022.[20] Criticism was directed at the app's invite-only model,[1][20][21] a conspicuous absence of female users,[21][22] and the company's slowness in approving new user profiles.[1]
Some users claimed that after answering a prompt that began "January 6 was..." they were contacted by theFBI.[20][21][23][24][25] A spokesperson for The Right Stuff toldThe Independent that it had determined the reports of FBI contact were false, and attributed them to "people trolling".[20]
The app, which marketed itself as a platform for Republican singles, struggled with a low female user base andtrolls, and faced criticism over potential data collection issues. The Right Stuff was variously described as "gimmicky", a "hustle", a "flop", and a "grift".[24][26] Logan Blakeslee, a student atBinghamton University and a writer for theBinghamton Review, described the platform as a commercial failure.[27]
^Chelsea Ritschel (5 October 2022). "The Right Stuff users claim they were contacted by FBI after using the conservative dating app".The Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2024 – viaindependent.co.uk.
