The Courting Apps Reporting Mission is an 18-month investigation. It was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Heart’s AI Accountability Community and The Markup, now part of CalMatters, and copublished with The Guardian and The nineteenth.
When a younger girl in Denver met up with a smiling heart specialist she matched with on the relationship app Hinge, she had no approach of understanding that the corporate behind the app had already obtained reviews from two different girls who accused him of rape.
She met the 34-year-old physician with inexperienced eyes and thinning hair at Highland Faucet & Burger, a sports activities bar in a stylish neighborhood. It went effectively sufficient that she accepted an invite to return to his condominium. As she emerged from his rest room, he handed her a tequila soda.
What transpired over the subsequent 24 hours, in keeping with courtroom testimony, reads like each particular person’s relationship app nightmare.
After sipping the drink, the girl began to lose management. Her reminiscence blurred. She fell to the bottom, and the person began to movie her. He put her in a headlock, kissing her brow; she struggled to free herself however managed to seize her issues and depart. He adopted her out the door, holding her footwear and attempting to pressure her again inside, however she was in a position to name an Uber, vomiting within the automobile on the way in which dwelling.
She awoke at dwelling, soaking moist on her rest room flooring, the important thing to her home nonetheless in her door. She continued vomiting for hours. When she got here to, she reported the assault to Hinge.
Hinge is one in all greater than a dozen relationship apps owned by Match Group. The $8.5 billion world conglomerate additionally owns manufacturers like Tinder (the world’s hottest relationship app), OkCupid, and Loads of Fish. Match Group controls half of the world’s on-line relationship market, operates in 190 international locations, and facilitates meetups for thousands and thousands of individuals.
Match Group’s official security coverage states that when a person is reported for assault, “all accounts discovered which are related to that person shall be banned from our platforms.”
So why, on the evening of Jan. 25, 2023, was Stephen Matthews nonetheless on the app? Simply 4 days earlier than, Match Group had been alerted when one other girl reported him for rape. A bit greater than every week later, he was reported for rape once more. This time, the survivor went to the police.
None of those girls knew that the corporate had identified about his violent conduct for years. He was first reported on Sept. 28, 2020. By then, Match Group’s security coverage was already in place.
Even after a police report, it took practically two months for Matthews to be arrested — the one factor that bought him off the apps. By then, not less than 15 girls would finally report that Matthews had raped or drugged them. Almost each one in all them had met him on relationship apps run by Match Group.
On Oct. 25, 2024, a Denver decide sentenced Matthews to 158 years to life in jail after a jury convicted him of 35 counts associated to drugging and sexually assaulting eight girls, drugging two girls, and assaulting yet another for a complete of 11 girls. Attorneys for the ladies stated a lot of that violence may have been prevented.
“It’s surprising that for years after receiving reviews of sexual assault, Hinge continued to permit Stephen Matthews entry to its platforms and actively facilitated his abuse,” stated Laura Wolf, the lawyer representing the girl whose police report led to the arrest. Following finest practices for reporting on sexual assault, the Courting Apps Reporting Mission is honoring survivors’ requests for anonymity. Matthews’ lawyer, Douglas Cohen, declined to remark. A letter that The Courting Apps Reporting Mission despatched on to Matthews in jail went unanswered.
Match Group’s attain is so huge — its mission is “to spark significant connections for each single particular person worldwide” — that persons are extra more likely to meet by way of its apps than out on the bars, at church, or by way of mates.
However Matthews’ case exhibits that at the same time as these apps have made it simpler for us to attach with a seemingly countless pool of potential lovers, they’ve additionally made it simpler for individuals who commit sexual abuse to succeed in a seemingly countless variety of potential targets.
In 2022, a group of researchers at Brigham Younger College revealed an evaluation of a whole lot of sexual assaults in Utah. They discovered assaults facilitated by relationship apps occurred quicker and have been extra violent than when the perpetrator met the sufferer by way of different means. Additionally they discovered that perpetrators who use relationship apps usually tend to goal susceptible folks. Virtually 60 % of sexual assault survivors self-reported a psychological sickness.
Match Group has identified for years which customers have been reported for drugging, assaulting, or raping their dates since not less than 2016, in keeping with inside firm paperwork. Since 2019, Match Group’s central database has recorded each person reported for rape and assault throughout its complete suite of apps; by 2022, the system, often called Sentinel, was gathering a whole lot of troubling incidents each week, firm insiders say.
Match Group promised in 2020 that it might launch what’s often called a transparency report — a public doc that will reveal knowledge on hurt occurring on and off its platforms. If the general public have been conscious of the dimensions of rape and assault on Match Group apps, they’d have the ability to precisely assess their danger. As of February 2025, the report has not been launched.
As a substitute, as folks continued to get damage, the corporate dithered over what damning info must be hidden. “Will we solely publish the place we’re required by legislation?” reads a slide in a 2021 presentation proven a number of instances to Match Group staff in addition to exterior security companions. “Will we push again on how a lot we’re required to disclose, or can we attempt to transcend what’s required?”
No on-line house is risk-free. However whereas Match Group has lengthy possessed the instruments, monetary sources, and investigative procedures essential to make it tougher for dangerous actors to resurface, inside paperwork present the corporate has resisted efforts to unfold them throughout its apps, partially as a result of security protocols may stall company development.
“The obsession with metrics and having to stay with them is irritating and probably harmful,” one worker wrote in 2021 after the corporate realized that the investigative information nonprofit ProPublica was planning a narrative. “This isn’t the way in which we have been meant to work and folks’s lives are in danger.”
The identical particular person requested their superiors: “‘How a lot would you personally pay to cease only one particular person being sexually assaulted by a date, one youngster being trafficked or one susceptible particular person being pushed to suicide by a predator?’ I really feel that if I requested members of our employees that query individually, they’d put a excessive worth of their very own cash on it – However as a gaggle no person is able to hear that but.”
Since 2021, Match Group has publicly promised to enhance the security of their merchandise and share knowledge, however firm insiders say security has not improved. A quick hiring spree sparked by congressional and media scrutiny has been largely scaled again, in keeping with former staff. In 2024, the remaining staff from the central trust-and-safety group Match Group arrange in response to elevated scrutiny have been let go and their jobs outsourced to abroad contractors. Going through stress from Wall Road, Match Group eliminated CEO Bernard Kim in early February 2025 as he struggled to chop prices and finish the regular decline in subscribers to Match Group’s strongest app, Tinder.
Members of Congress have repeatedly requested knowledge from Match Group on sexual hurt. In February 2020, 11 members of Congress wrote to then-CEO Shar Dubey asking for particulars on how the corporate responds to reviews of sexual violence. In July 2023, two Democrats, then-Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire and Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois adopted up after we inquired on the standing of their efforts. The corporate has nonetheless not offered the info.
In September 2024, the Home of Representatives handed a invoice that requires customers to be notified if they’ve interacted with a person on a relationship app who has been banned for defrauding customers of cash or private monetary info. However the invoice stopped wanting addressing the problem of sexual assault on the apps, and it died within the Senate.
Our assessment of a whole lot of pages of inside firm paperwork, together with 1000’s of pages of courtroom data, securities filings, and analyst reviews, coupled with dozens of interviews with present and former staff and survivors of sexual violence discovered girls who report being raped get no traction, whereas accused rapists like Stephen Matthews maintain swiping — and assaulting.
Our personal testing on Match Group apps exhibits that as of February 2025, not a lot has modified. Banned Tinder customers, together with these reported for sexual assault, can simply rejoin or transfer to a different Match Group relationship app, all whereas protecting most of their key private info precisely the identical.
The Courting Apps Reporting Mission despatched Match Group a four-page letter detailing our findings. The corporate responded with a brief assertion. The assertion didn’t dispute that Match Group has rigorously documented the extent of hurt on firm apps for years with out sharing that info with the general public. It additionally defended the corporate’s efforts to make platforms secure.
“We acknowledge our function in fostering safer communities and selling genuine and respectful connections worldwide,” the assertion offered by Kayla Whaling, senior director of communications, learn. “We are going to all the time work to put money into and enhance our programs, and seek for methods to assist our customers keep secure, each on-line and once they join in actual life.”
The corporate stated it vigorously combats violence. “We take each report of misconduct severely, and vigilantly take away and block accounts which have violated our guidelines relating to this conduct,” its assertion learn. Our personal testing discovered in any other case.
Beginning in April 2024, The Courting Apps Reporting Mission created a sequence of Tinder accounts that we subsequently reported for sexual assault. Quickly after, Tinder banned the accounts, and we began investigating how simple it might be for a banned person to create new accounts.
Repeatedly, we discovered that customers, quickly after being banned, may create new Tinder accounts with the very same title, birthday, and profile pictures used on their banned accounts. Customers banned from Tinder have been additionally in a position to join Hinge, OkCupid, and Loads of Fish with out altering these private particulars.
To get across the Tinder ban, we used strategies generally recommended by on-line guides and boards that don’t require a number of technical data to grasp. We have been in a position to confirm three strategies that allowed banned Match Group customers to repeatedly bypass being flagged when creating new accounts.
In its assertion, Match Group forged itself as an trade chief in deploying expertise to advertise security, together with “harassment-preventing AI instruments, ID verification for profiles, and a portal that helps us higher assist and talk with legislation enforcement investigating crimes. … Each particular person deserves secure and respectful experiences. We’re dedicated to doing the work to make relationship safer on our platforms and past,” the assertion stated.
Sept. 28, 2020 — the date Denver heart specialist Stephen Matthews raped a lady who reported him to Hinge — can be the date Tracey Breeden was introduced on as Match Group’s head of security and social advocacy.
Breeden was a flashy rent. “With Tracey approaching board, we’re reaffirming our dedication not simply to be security leaders within the relationship house, however throughout your complete tech sector,” then-CEO Shar Dubey stated.
Sporting a trademark black leather-based jacket and brief, slick-backed hair, Breeden glided by the nickname “Twister” throughout her 15-year profession in legislation enforcement. What made her enticing to Match Group was her most up-to-date job at Uber. She helped the worldwide ride-hailing firm revive its repute after a sequence of scandals — from persistent reviews of harassment of girls staff to allegations that it was ignoring sexual assault that occurred throughout Uber rides.
Breeden spearheaded a security report in 2019 that informed the general public what Uber knew about practically each downside, together with nationwide reviews of intoxicated drivers, visitors fatalities, and incidents of sexual violence. The report turned a key metric of success for the corporate.
In hiring Breeden, Match Group hoped to copy this success throughout its portfolio of apps. “Companies,” she stated in a press launch asserting her arrival, “have a duty to assist guarantee secure experiences for his or her customers.”
Breeden’s group garnered public consideration for its new security measures, together with partnerships with NGOs, non-compulsory AI-assisted picture verification, and a legislation enforcement portal the place police and prosecutors can request knowledge.
She additionally fostered a partnership with Garbo, a startup that supplied low-cost background checks. It launched on Tinder in 2022. Consultants level out that background checks are usually not all the time dependable as they pull from outdated databases, and analysis means that most individuals who commit sexual abuse don’t encounter the felony justice system. For instance, Matthews had no felony document.
Throughout this time, Match Group invested $100 million into security as a recurring value, the corporate stated, and boasted about Breeden’s “central security group.”
Her group of veteran security professionals referred to themselves as “The Avengers,” even donning superhero costumes at firm occasions.
However Michael Lawrie known as this “security theater.”
Lawrie labored for Match Group for practically a decade, shaping and main a security group for one of many firm’s smaller manufacturers, OkCupid. Typically working 80-hour weeks, he spent hours, even days, sniffing out savvy customers who tried to thwart bans by creating a number of accounts.
Over a 30-year profession in content material moderation, Lawrie stated, he noticed many customers like Stephen Matthews. “You’re coping with one repeat offender. I’ve handled god is aware of what number of repeat offenders,” he stated.
A yellow Put up-it word on the facet of Lawrie’s pc listed out a few of his duties: “Rape flags. … Examine miscreants.”
Today, Lawrie is attempting to start out an advocacy group for content material moderators and different front-line security staff. However, he stated, he’s executed with relationship apps.
“I don’t assume they’re secure sufficient for the time being,” he stated. “They’re gonna worsen. …I’m hoping relationship websites vanish.”
Lawrie stated he was initially enthusiastic about Breeden’s rent. He stated she spent her first few months on the job speaking to every model’s security group, and informed him that she was “very impressed” by the work OkCupid was doing.
Every of Match Group’s greatest apps offered their self-described strengths and weaknesses to Breeden’s group, in keeping with an inside spreadsheet. At Hinge, these weaknesses included a “very rudimentary warning system with no focused comms and no comply with by way of” and “no technique to discover” the unique profile “of a foul actor who has created a number of profiles.”
Breeden was confronted with an existential downside. “Our present ban classes received’t permit us to reply the general public’s greatest query: Am I more likely to be harmed on my date?” reads a slide in a presentation drafted by her group in April 2021. Whereas every of Match Group’s apps had a system of reporting and banning violent customers, the data was disorganized, and not one of the apps talked to one another.
Lawrie hoped Breeden would enhance security on the firm. However he rapidly grew annoyed that neither she nor Match Group management listened to his pleas for what they actually wanted to make platforms safer: To rent educated — and costly — investigators and combine highly effective moderation instruments throughout all of the apps.
OkCupid already had these instruments. Lawrie was utilizing them daily.
A kind of was the Sentinel system, which had been up and operating throughout Match Group’s apps for not less than 5 years earlier than Breeden arrived. It really works like this: When a person is banned for one thing critical — like sexual assault — a case is created in Sentinel with the telephone quantity and electronic mail tackle related to their account. In interviews, a number of present and former staff described how these reviews flow into by way of every of Match Group’s apps. The system is designed to ban anybody who makes use of that info. It additionally grabs the unique profile’s IP addresses, pictures, and birthdate.
Such a system appears sturdy at first look — however not one of the Match Group’s apps require customers to offer picture identification (the type wanted to purchase alcohol or board an airplane), so as soon as an individual is kicked out, they will simply begin a brand new account with completely different contact info. A fast search yields scores of on-line boards with clear steps and strategies for the best way to rejoin the apps. As well as, inside firm paperwork present info on IP addresses, pictures, and birthdate weren’t used to ban a person if they seem on one other Match relationship app.
Lawrie’s group at OkCupid knew Sentinel may solely accomplish that a lot.
So his group deployed different instruments to repair its shortcomings, together with one that might mechanically ban a profile that was linked to a telephone quantity, picture, or URL that had been beforehand banned — even when the person made an account with a unique electronic mail or IP tackle. This instrument was designed to be proactive reasonably than reactive, in order that the profiles of alleged perpetrators like Matthews wouldn’t resurface after that they had been reported.
Inner firm paperwork from 2019 and 2020 present 1000’s of reviews of “critical bodily assault,” abuse, or violence on OkCupid that have been deemed critical sufficient to get customers banned from all of Match Group’s apps. That is among the many info the corporate stored from the general public.
Breeden and Match Group management praised Lawrie and his group at OkCupid, he stated, for his or her thorough investigative work and for dealing with a number of the firm’s most tough circumstances. But, he stated, Match Group by no means constructed out a talented, skilled investigative unit at different manufacturers just like the one he headed up at OkCupid. Underneath Breeden’s management, he stated, they confronted stress to hurry up investigations and prepare outsourced labor to make use of difficult moderation instruments.
Every week after a damning article in 2021 revealed that content material moderators with little coaching have been requested to quickly take care of violent sexual content material throughout Match Group’s manufacturers, then-CEO Dubey despatched out an all-staff electronic mail addressing the controversy. She CC’d Breeden, acknowledging that the model’s security groups weren’t all on equal footing.
As Match Group ready internally for the story to interrupt, Lawrie was requested to write down a report for Breeden outlining his group’s accomplishments “to ensure when Tracey describes and acknowledges what you might be doing individually to have fun the great work that you’re doing.”
Lawrie used that report back to protest.
“Most professionals aren’t judged on what number of circumstances they will hurry by way of in an hour,” he wrote. The best way Match Group expects its trust-and-safety and assist groups to work “mainly diminishes their expertise and makes them production-line staff.” Breeden declined to remark for this story, citing a nondisclosure settlement.
Lawrie left the corporate in 2022 and stated most of his small group that was ferreting out malicious customers additionally left as a consequence of a unfavorable office atmosphere. He stated a lot of their work was outsourced to contractors with little coaching and extreme quotas.
He now cautions anybody utilizing a relationship app to grasp that they’re not within the enterprise of defending customers.
“You’re by yourself just about,” he stated.
As Lawrie was getting pushed out of Match Group, Matthews stored showing on the corporate’s apps.
One crisp fall night in 2022, one of many Denver heart specialist’s previous medical faculty classmates was on Hinge when her telephone display stuffed up with a well-known face.
Matthews was being promoted on the app as a Standout, a preferred profile that Hinge’s algorithm thinks you’ll like. To match with a Standout, customers should ship the particular person a rose. They get one free rose every week, however they value $3.99 a pop after that. His classmate didn’t ship Matthews a rose.
By this level, Matthews had already been reported for rape not less than as soon as to Hinge. Court docket paperwork present that he had already allegedly sexually assaulted 9 girls and drugged 10. Not solely did the apps permit him again on, they featured Matthews’ profile.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic dragged on, folks bought uninterested in forking cash over for relationship apps. Match Group nonetheless made a hefty revenue, however its development flatlined. Its inventory cratered, dropping practically half its worth between October 2021 and April 2022. That month, an analyst from J.P. Morgan wrote that the agency had obtained extra messages about “the underperformance of MTCH shares in current weeks than every other matter.”
In Could 2022, Match ousted Dubey and put in Bernard Kim as CEO, a former govt on the gaming firm Zynga that popularized viral video games like “FarmVille.”
Whereas Dubey spoke regularly about belief and security and labored intently with Breeden, Kim hardly talked about security when he started his time at Match Group, as an alternative emphasizing the necessity for continued fast enlargement to drive long-term shareholder worth.
Lawrie stated that Kim, along with his background in gaming reasonably than relationship apps, had little interest in love. “He simply desires to earn cash. He’s simply there to extend income,” Lawrie stated. “If he’s taking a look at a backside line, then it’s simpler to have a lawsuit than it’s to offer security. I do know which one he’s gonna choose.” Match Group declined to make Bernard Kim accessible for an interview. Messages despatched to Kim immediately went unreturned.
Whereas the stress between development and security exists throughout the tech sector, it’s particularly excessive at relationship apps corporations the place executives have to fret about fixed churn — customers leaving the apps when they’re now not on the lookout for dates. Each time Match Group delivers on its promise, it additionally loses prospects.
In February 2024, six relationship app customers filed what they hope shall be licensed as a category motion lawsuit. They argue Match Group makes use of “addictive” options to encourage compulsive use whereas not resulting in any actual improve in off-app relationships. “The app is designed particularly to hook them, and to maintain them paying subscription charges — to not assist them discover love,” lawyer Ryan Clarkson stated. Match Group filed to dismiss the lawsuit in September, noting in its quarterly report that it “will defend vigorously” in opposition to the allegations.
Regardless of Kim’s efforts, Match Group’s inventory value continued to drop, and through that point, so did any point out of belief and security. In over a yr of quarterly investor calls, Kim solely referenced security efforts as soon as.
Staff who pushed for these initiatives have been compelled out or laid off, together with Breeden — a frontrunner who was so satisfied of her personal invincibility that she confirmed as much as an occasion wielding a Captain America protect.
Match Group fired its energy rent in October 2022. Layoffs hit her group over the subsequent a number of months. In February 2024, the remaining vital investigators and legislation enforcement liaisons on Breeden’s central security group have been proven the door.
Lawrie stated group chats of former Match Group staff have been gossipping in regards to the cutbacks.
“You’re not gonna see them taking security severely ever once more,” he stated, including that the one factor that he thinks would possibly change that’s laws.
4 months earlier than Matthews was arrested, a put up on a Fb group in Denver blew up, proper round Christmas.
Over and over, girls furiously detailed unfavorable experiences they or their mates had with Matthews.
Some girls described him as “sketchy.” Others known as him “horrible” and “not secure.” A number of girls informed an identical, darkish story: that they have been supplied drinks, blacked out, and sexually assaulted.
The thread reached 150 feedback. Two girls wrote the identical factor: that that they had been ready for somebody to put up in regards to the heart specialist.
The flood of Fb feedback mirrored particulars within the police reviews launched the next yr. Almost the entire 16 girls included within the district lawyer’s preliminary complaints have been supplied tequila. Eight recalled taking part in Jenga. Six talked about a scorching tub.
As these tales circulated on this small nook of the web in December 2022, the Denver heart specialist stayed on Match Group apps.
These lucky sufficient to know in regards to the Fb group — and who had the foresight to examine for Matthews on it — could be saved from a foul date or worse. However the truth that he may nonetheless log into Tinder and Hinge left him with a pool of 1000’s of unsuspecting girls whom he may — and would — proceed to match with.
The Courting Apps Reporting Mission is conscious of 4 extra girls who’ve accused Matthews of drugging and/or raping them who weren’t a part of the felony grievance. Every of those girls met Matthews on a Match Group app throughout a single yr between the summers of 2020 and 2021.
Throughout the years Matthews was on their apps, Match Group employed and fired Breeden. It made loud guarantees on sexual violence, introduced initiatives and product strains, and promised a transparency report. However it was not straight with the general public, which meant the ladies matching with Matthews on Match Group apps weren’t conscious of the danger they confronted.
Match Group’s partnership with Garbo, the background examine firm, additionally fell aside in the summertime of 2023. “It’s grow to be clear that the majority on-line platforms aren’t legitimately dedicated to belief and security for his or her customers,” Garbo wrote in a searing weblog put up.
After spending a lot vitality speaking about monetization, gamification, and development, Kim started to publicly acknowledge this downside. Talking on the Citibank convention within the fall of 2023, he stated the corporate was investing in new options to ensure “girls have an excellent expertise whereas they’re within the product. They really feel secure. They really feel safe. And many others.”
The “and many others.” doesn’t appear to incorporate elevated transparency about security. As a substitute, in Could 2023, Tinder launched a “female-focused package deal,” a curated listing of “high-quality profiles.” It’s unclear how Tinder determines these high-quality matches. Hinge’s Standout characteristic, which has similarities, had beforehand promoted Matthews.
Actually, below Kim’s management, all mentions of a transparency report disappeared from the corporate’s annual impression report. Satirically, this was across the identical time that new laws in Europe required tech corporations to reveal reviews of “non-consensual conduct” and different points. Match Group shall be required to submit a transparency report back to the European Union on the scope of hurt on their platforms later this month. Lawmakers in India and Australia are additionally demanding transparency.
That is precisely the scenario Breeden and her group contemplated three years in the past. “What if publishing in a single jurisdiction sparks a requirement in one other?” learn a slide in the identical inside presentation the place Match Group’s trust-and-safety leaders puzzled whether or not they need to “push again on how a lot (they) are required to disclose.”
After Match Group revealed a disappointing earnings report in February 2025 that fell under analysts’ expectations, it additionally introduced that Kim would get replaced by former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff. Tinder’s income, gross sales, and subscribers had all gone down.
As Match Group struggles to reverse its decline, it’s additionally conscious that its repute is within the highlight. Earnings calls and shareholder letters over the primary three quarters of 2024 point out that the corporate is aware of it’s a enterprise crucial to make girls really feel safer on its platforms. Match Group introduced in a brand new vice chairman to move belief and security whose job partly focuses on complying with elevated world transparency necessities. The corporate is experimenting with requiring faces in pictures and rolled out a “Share My Date” characteristic so that you will be tracked whereas assembly up with a web based stranger. On Tinder, it orchestrated a “main ecosystem cleanup” geared towards figuring out faux profiles and getting scammers off the app.
However neither the cleanup nor monitoring a date out of your telephone would have stopped Matthews — a person who by no means sought to cover his id, who assaulted his dates in his own residence — from discovering and harming girls.
4 years after Matthews’ first documented assault, he walked right into a wood-paneled courtroom in Denver and was sentenced to 158 years to life in jail. “I’ll sentence. I can not heal,” Choose Eric Johnson informed the room full of survivors and relations.
“Numerous girls have suffered and can proceed to endure,” stated Laura Wolf, an lawyer who represented the girl whose police report triggered Matthews’ arrest. “Hinge and different relationship platforms have taken no steps to make sure the security of the product they’re promoting, matching unsuspecting girls to identified predators with out pause or concern.”
Match Group didn’t make it simple for the Denver prosecutors to convict Matthews. A search warrant was issued to Hinge in July 2023. Two months later, prosecutors have been nonetheless empty-handed — with the decide within the case asking at a listening to if he wanted to start out “dragging folks in to get stuff executed.” It wasn’t till February 2024 that the Denver District Lawyer’s Workplace stated they lastly obtained paperwork returned by Match Group.
Matthews will probably by no means depart jail. Match Group executives at the moment face no fees. However the firm knew about Matthews, and it is aware of about 1000’s of different abusive customers. It has the info that might assist customers keep away from harmful conditions, but it surely hasn’t shared it, leaving thousands and thousands of individuals at the hours of darkness.
Lawmakers all over the world are beginning to ask for solutions from essentially the most highly effective pressure in trendy relationship. In June, Colorado handed a legislation, triggered by the Matthews case, that forces relationship app corporations to inform the state lawyer normal what security measures they’re taking to guard customers. Though the legislation leaves room for the opportunity of extra transparency sooner or later, it doesn’t at the moment require the corporate to inform the state, or the general public, how many individuals are raped or assaulted after utilizing its platform. Within the U.S., we’ve simply scratched the floor. In most states, there’s little that requires Match Group to share info with you — or with Congress.
The truth is that if Stephen Matthews have been launched right this moment, he may get proper again on a relationship app. Match Group is aware of this — and now so do you.
Stephanie Wolf contributed reporting. Statistical journalist Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett led The Markup’s testing of Match Group apps.
This text was initially revealed on The Markup and was republished below the Inventive Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
