I lean towards discounting both rumors. I think the temptation to use said kill-switches would prove too great to resist, particularly for the authoritarian types involved.

We saw this a lot with provisions of the “PATRIOT Act”. It was championed as tools needed to combat terrorists and claimed to be reserved for such cases. In actuality, it was used to go after people running fan sites for sci-fi tv shows, among other things.

If such a kill switch existed in computer hardware, I’m sure it would have been used already. I’m less sure about a kill switch in the planes. On one hand, that’s a pretty situational tool, and you wouldn’t want to play that card until you really needed it.

OTOH, we didn’t hear about threats to throw the kill switch during the bluster over Greenland. If they had one, I think it would have been part of that bluster.

Because I’m not a sociopath. In this theoretical happily-ever-after dating app, I want to make people happy by connecting them with the right other people. Ongoing business comes from happy couples giving word of mouth recommendations to their friends and family, not from trying to lock in a misery subscription.

Maybe I’m old fashioned. I remember a time when capitalism meant “make money by doing something helpful for people” instead of rent-seeking bamboozle profits.

any kind of dating app is self-detrimental for revenue

It doesn’t have to be. In the US, about 4 million people turn 18 every year. Let’s say you get all of them signed up and all of them optimally paired off. You still have another 4 million new signups next year. Until the world falls off a demographic cliff, you’ve got an evergreen customer population.

That being said, the well is VERY poisoned at this point. The match group is a cancer on our society.