Match Group has known for years about abusive users on its dozen dating apps, but leaves millions of people in the dark

Hinge is one of more than a dozen dating apps owned by Match Group. The $8.5bn global conglomerate also owns brands like Tinder (the world’s most popular dating app), OKCupid and Plenty of Fish. Match Group controls half of the world’s online dating market, operates in 190 countries and facilitates meetups for millions of people.

Match Group’s official safety policy states that when a user is reported for assault, “all accounts found that are associated with that user will be banned from our platforms”.

So why, on the night of 25 January 2023, was Stephen Matthews still on the app? Just four days before, Match Group had been alerted when another woman reported him for rape. A little more than a week later, he was reported for rape again. This time, the survivor went to the police.

None of these women knew that the company had known about his violent behavior for years. He was first reported on 28 September 2020. By then, Match Group’s safety policy was already in place.

    • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      These aren’t better. They are also very good, but not better.

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    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      Yes it is a for-profit news source but all profits are reinvested in the company, not doled out to investors.

      The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to “secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference”. The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for The Guardian the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian