The Dating Apps Reporting Project is an 18 - month investigating . It was create in partnership with thePulitzer Center ’s AI Accountability NetworkandThe Markup , now a part ofCalMatters , and copublished withThe GuardianandThe 19th .
When a new char in Denver met up with a smiling heart surgeon she pair with on the dating app Hinge , she had no means of make love that the company behind the app had already received reports from two other woman who impeach him of assault .
She met the 34 - twelvemonth - old doctor with green centre and thinning hair at Highland Tap & Burger , a sports stripe in a voguish locality . It went well enough that she bear an invitation to go back to his flat . As she emerge from his privy , he turn over her a tequila soda .
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What transpired over the next 24 hours , according to judicature testimony , record like every person ’s dating app nightmare .
After sip the swallow , the woman started to recede mastery . Her memory blur . She fell to the earth , and the military man take up to film her . He put her in a headlock , kissing her forehead ; she fight to liberate herself but oversee to grab her matter and leave . He followed her out the doorway , holding her shoe and render to force her back indoors , but she was able to call an Uber , vomiting in the car on the means home .
She woke up at home , soaking wet on her bathroom floor , the key to her house still in her threshold . She continued spew for hours . When she get to , she reported the assault to Hinge .
Hinge is one of more than a dozen date apps owned by Match Group . The $ 8.5 billion spherical conglomerate also have brand like Tinder ( the man ’s most popular dating app ) , OkCupid , and Plenty of Fish . Match Group ensure half of the world ’s online dating food market , operates in 190 nation , and alleviate meetups for millions of citizenry .
Match Group’sofficial base hit policystates that when a user is reported for ravishment , “ all accounts found that are associated with that user will be ostracize from our program . ”
So why , on the nighttime of Jan. 25 , 2023 , was Stephen Matthews still on the app ? Just four sidereal day before , Match Group had been alerted when another woman account him for rape . A little more than a workweek subsequently , he was reported for rape again . This time , the survivor lead to the police .
None of these charwoman knew that the company had get laid about his vehement deportment for years . He was first report on Sept. 28 , 2020 . By then , Match Group ’s guard policy was already in place .
Even after a constabulary report , it took nearly two months for Matthews to be hold — the only thing that have him off the apps . By then , at least 15 women would finally account that Matthews had raped or do drugs them . Nearly every one of them had met him on dating apps consort by Match Group .
On Oct. 25 , 2024,a Denver judge sentenced Matthews to 158 class to liveliness in prisonafter a jury convicted him of 35 reckoning related to drugging and sexually assaulting eight women , drug two women , and violate one more for a sum of 11 woman . Attorneys for the woman said much of that violence could have been prevented .
Match Group ’s compass is so massive — its mission is “ to trip meaningful connection for every single individual worldwide ” — that peopleare more likely to meet through its appsthan out at the bar , at church , or through friends .
But Matthews ’ instance shows that even as these apps have made it gentle for us to connect with a apparently sempiternal pool of potential fan , they have also made it prosperous for people who commit intimate insult to reach a seemingly eternal number of potential targets .
In 2022 , a team of investigator at Brigham Young University published ananalysisof hundreds of intimate assaults in Utah . They found attacks help by dating apps go on faster and were more violent than when the perpetrator fulfil the victim through other means . They also found that perpetrators who apply dating apps are more probable to target vulnerable people . Almost 60 percentage of sexual assault survivor self - report a genial illness .
Match Group has be intimate for yr which user have been reported for drugging , dishonour , or rap their dates since at least 2016 , harmonise to internal caller documents . Since 2019 , Match Group ’s central database has recorded every user reported for rape and assault across its entire entourage of apps ; by 2022 , the organization , known as Sentinel , was collecting hundreds of troubling incidents every workweek , company insider say .
Match Group promisedin 2020that it would relinquish what ’s know as a transparency report — a public document that would reveal data on harm occurring on and off its platforms . If the world were aware of the scale of rape and assault on Match Group apps , they would be able to accurately tax their risk . As of February 2025 , the account has not been released .
or else , as people continued to get hurt , the fellowship dithered over what bedamn information should be blot out . “ Do we only write where we are require by law of nature ? ” read a playground slide in a 2021 presentation shown multiple clock time to Match Group employee as well as outside safety partners . “ Do we push back on how much we are required to reveal , or do we endeavor to go beyond what is required ? ”
No on-line blank space is risk - free . But while Match Group has long possess the tools , fiscal resources , and fact-finding procedures necessary to make it harder for bad actor to resurface , intragroup documents show the companionship has resisted efforts to propagate them across its apps , in part because prophylactic protocols could dilly-dally corporate growth .
“ The fixation with metrics and have to stick with them is frustrating and potentially dangerous , ” one employee wrote in 2021 after the ship’s company acquire that the investigative news nonprofit ProPublica was design a story . “ This is not the way we were meant to influence and citizenry ’s lives are at risk . ”
The same person asked their superiors : “ ‘ How much would you personally pay to stop just one person being sexually assaulted by a date , one tiddler being traffic or one vulnerable somebody being driven to suicide by a vulture ? ’ I feel that if I asked appendage of our faculty that interview separately , they would put a high value of their own money on it – But as a grouping nobody is ready to see that yet . ”
fellow member of Congress have repeatedly call for data from Match Group on intimate trauma . In February 2020 , 11 member ofCongress wroteto then - CEO Shar Dubey asking for details on how the troupe responds to report of sexual violence . In July 2023 , two Democrats , then - Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire and Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois follow up after we enquire on the position of their efforts . The company has still not provided the datum .
In September 2024 , the House of Representativespassed a billthat demand consumers to be notified if they have interact with a user on a dating app who has been banned for bunco consumers of money or personal fiscal info . But the banknote stopped suddenly of addressing the effect of sexual assault on the apps , and it pass away in the Senate .
Our review of hundreds of pages of internal troupe documents , along with thousands of Page of court record , securities filings , and analyst reports , coupled with dozens of interview with current and former employee and survivors of sexual violence found women who cover being tap get no traction , while accused rapists like Stephen Matthews keep swiping — and ravish .
Our own examination on Match Group apps shows that as of February 2025 , not much has changed . Banned Tinder users , including those reported for sexual ravishment , can easily rejoin or move to another Match Group dating app , all while keeping most of their key personal selective information incisively the same .
The Dating Apps Reporting Project send Match Group a four - varlet letter detail our findings . The caller responded with a forgetful statement . The instruction did not dispute that Match Group has carefully documented the extent of harm on party apps for years without divvy up that selective information with the public . It also guard the company ’s efforts to make platforms good .
“ We recognize our persona in fostering safer communities and advance veritable and reverential connections worldwide , ” the statement provided by Kayla Whaling , fourth-year film director of communications , read . “ We will always work to invest in and improve our scheme , and explore for ways to help our user stay safe , both online and when they relate in real lifetime . ”
The company said it vigorously battle wildness . “ We take every theme of wrongful conduct seriously , and vigilantly polish off and mental block accounts that have offend our rules regarding this behavior , ” its argument read . Our own testing found otherwise .
Starting in April 2024 , The Dating Apps Reporting Project created a series of Tinder accounts that we subsequently reported for sexual assault . Soon after , Tinder banned the accounts , and we started investigate how soft it would be for a banned user to create new accounts .
Repeatedly , we found that user , soon after being ban , could create new Tinder describe with the exact same name , natal day , and profile exposure used on their ban account . Users banned from Tinder were also able to sign up for Hinge , OkCupid , and Plenty of Fish without changing those personal details .
To get around the Tinder ban , we used techniques commonly suggested by on-line guide and forums that do n’t require wad of technical knowledge to empathize . We were able to affirm three technique that reserve censor Match Group user to repeatedly bypass being sag when creating fresh accounts .
In its assertion , Match Group cast itself as an industry leader in deploy engineering to promote safety , including “ molestation - prevent AI cock , ID confirmation for profile , and a portal that assist us good support and pass with law enforcement investigating crimes . … Every person merit safe and respectful experiences . We are committed to doing the workplace to make dating dependable on our platforms and beyond , ” the statement read .
Sept. 28 , 2020 — the escort Denver heart specialist Stephen Matthews dishonor a woman who reported him to Hinge — is also the date Tracey Breeden was brought on as Match Group ’s headland of prophylactic and social advocacy .
Breeden was a flashy hire . “ With Tracey come on card , we are reaffirming our commitment not just to be safety drawing card in the dating space , but across the intact tech sphere , ” then - CEO Shar Dubey say .
romp a trademark black leather jacket crown and short , slick - backed hairsbreadth , Breeden go by the soubriquet “ Tornado ” during her 15 - year career in law enforcement . What made her attractive to Match Group was her most recent job at Uber . She facilitate the spherical ride - hailing fellowship animate its reputation after a series of scandals — from persistent reports of harassment of adult female employees to allegations that it was ignoring intimate assault that occurred during Uber ride .
Breeden spearheaded a safety report in 2019 that told the public what Uber knew about nearly every problem , include countrywide theme of drunk drivers , traffic fatality , and incidents of sexual violence . The study became a key system of measurement of winner for the company .
In rent Breeden , Match Group hoped to replicate this winner across its portfolio of apps . “ Corporations , ” she said in a insistence sacking announce her arrival , “ have a responsibility to help ensure safe experiences for their users . ”
Breeden ’s team garnered public attention for its fresh condom measures , including partnerships with NGOs , optional AI - serve photo verification , and a law enforcement portal where police and prosecutors can request data point .
She also fostered a partnership with Garbo , a inauguration that offered low - cost ground check . It launched on Tinder in 2022 . Experts point out that background checks are not always reliable as they draw from superannuated databases , andresearchsuggests that most citizenry who dedicate intimate abuse do not meet the criminal justice organisation . For model , Matthews had no criminal record .
During this time , Match Group invest $ 100 million into safety as a recur cost , the ship’s company said , and boasted about Breeden ’s “ central refuge squad . ”
Her squad of old-timer rubber master referred to themselves as “ The Avengers , ” even donning superhero costume at company events .
But Michael Lawrie call up this “ safety theater . ”
Lawrie worked for Match Group for nearly a decennium , mould and leading a safety squad for one of the ship’s company ’s minuscule brands , OkCupid . Sometimes working 80 - time of day week , he spend hour , even day , sniffing out savvy users who examine to thwart bans by creating multiple accounts .
Over a 30 - year calling in capacity moderation , Lawrie enjoin , he saw many user like Stephen Matthews . “ You ’re dole out with one repeat offender . I ’ve dealt with god knows how many repeat offenders , ” he say .
A yellow Post - it mention on the side of Lawrie ’s reckoner number out some of his province : “ Brassica napus flagstone . … Investigate reprobate . ”
These Day , Lawrie is trying to lead off an advocacy organisation for content moderator and other front - line guard workers . But , he say , he ’s done with go steady apps .
“ I do n’t intend they ’re good enough at the moment , ” he said . “ They ’re gon na get unsound . … I ’m hoping dating site vanish . ”
Lawrie said he was ab initio delirious about Breeden ’s hire . He said she drop her first few months on the job talking to each brand ’s safety team , and severalise him that she was “ very impressed ” by the work OkCupid was doing .
Each of Match Group ’s big apps provided their self - depict strengths and helplessness to Breeden ’s squad , according to an national spreadsheet . At Hinge , these failing include a “ very rudimentary warning system with no point comms and no follow through ” and “ no way to find ” the original visibility “ of a bad role player who has created multiple profile . ”
Breeden was confronted with an existential trouble . “ Our current ban category wo n’t allow us to answer the public ’s biggest question : Am I potential to be harmed on my escort ? ” reads a slide in a display drafted by her team in April 2021 . While each of Match Group ’s apps had a organisation of reporting and banning violent user , the entropy was disorganize , and none of the apps talk to each other .
Lawrie hoped Breeden would ameliorate safety at the company . But he quickly turn frustrated that neither she nor Match Group leadership listened to his supplication for what they really require to make platforms good : To rent train — and expensive — investigators and integrate herculean easing tools across all the apps .
OkCupid already had those tools . Lawrie was using them every mean solar day . One of those was the Sentinel system , which had been up and running across Match Group ’s apps for at least five eld before Breeden arrived . It works like this : When a user is banned for something serious — like intimate assault — a case is created in Sentinel with the sound number and e-mail name and address associated with their account . In interviews , multiple current and former employee described how those reports propagate through each of Match Group ’s apps . The organization is designed to banish anyone who uses that data . It also take hold of the original visibility ’s IP addresses , photos , and birthdate .
Such a system of rules seems full-bodied at first glimpse — but none of the Match Group ’s apps require users to put up photo identification ( the kind need to purchase alcohol or get on an aeroplane ) , so once a person is kicked out , they can easy start a new account with different inter-group communication information . A quick search yields scores of online forums with clear steps and hypnotism for how to rejoin the apps . In increase , intimate troupe documents show information on IP savoir-faire , photos , and birthdate were not used to ban a user if they appear on another Match dating app .
Lawrie ’s squad at OkCupid acknowledge Sentinel could only do so much .
So his squad deployed other tools to limit its shortcomings , include one that could automatically ban a visibility that was connect to a phone number , picture , or uniform resource locator that had been antecedently banned — even if the user made an account with a dissimilar e-mail or IP address . This tool was designed to be proactive rather than reactive , so that the profiles of aver perpetrators like Matthews would not resurface after they had been reported .
Internal company document from 2019 and 2020 show 1000 of reports of “ serious forcible assault , ” abuse , or violence on OkCupid that were deemed serious enough to get drug user banned from all of Match Group ’s apps . This is among the information the company kept from the world .
Breeden and Match Group leaders praised Lawrie and his team at OkCupid , he said , for their thoroughgoing investigatory workplace and for deal some of the company ’s most difficult cases . Yet , he tell , Match Group never built out a skilled , experienced investigative unit of measurement at other mark like the one he head up at OkCupid . Under Breeden ’s leading , he said , they faced imperativeness to speed up investigations and train outsource labor to use complicated moderation tools .
A hebdomad after adamning article in 2021revealed that subject matter moderator with piddling grooming were asked to rapidly get by with red intimate subject across Match Group ’s brands , then - CEO Dubey sent out an all - stave email addressing the argument . She CC’d Breeden , receipt that the brand ’s condom teams were not all on equal footing .
As Match Group prepared internally for the story to unwrap , Lawrie was asked to spell a report for Breeden outlining his squad ’s accomplishments “ to ensure when Tracey depict and acknowledges what you are doing on an individual basis to celebrate the good work that you are doing . ”
Lawrie used that report to protest .
“ Most professionals are n’t judged on how many case they can hurry through in an hour , ” he wrote . The elbow room Match Group expect its trust - and - safety and financial support teams to process “ fundamentally diminishes their skills and wee-wee them product - furrow worker . ” Breeden declined to comment for this story , quote a nondisclosure concord .
Lawrie left the company in 2022 and said most of his small team that was ferret out malicious users also left due to a minus work environs . He say much of their work was outsourced to contractors with little training and stark quotas .
He now cautions anyone using a date app to sympathise that they ’re not in the business of protecting users .
“ You ’re on your own pretty much , ” he enunciate .
As Lawrie was getting campaign out of Match Group , Matthews keep appearing on the company ’s apps .
One crispy fall evening in 2022 , one of the Denver cardiologist ’s old medical shoal classmates was on Hinge when her phone screen filled up with a familiar human face .
Matthews was being promoted on the app as a Standout , a popular profile that Hinge ’s algorithm thinks you ’ll like . To play off with a Standout , users must send the person a rose . They get one gratuitous rose a week , but they be $ 3.99 a pop after that . His classmate did not institutionalize Matthews a pink wine .
By this point , Matthews had already been reported for rape at least once to Hinge . Court documents show that he had already allegedly sexually violate nine charwoman and drugged 10 . Not only did the apps allow him back on , they have Matthews ’ profile .
As the COVID-19 pandemic embroil on , multitude got tired of forking money over for dating apps . Match Group still made a hefty profit , but its maturation flatlined . Its lineage cratered , losing nearly half its value between October 2021 and April 2022 . That month , an analyst from J.P. Morganwrote thatthe firm had incur more messages about “ the underperformance of MTCH shares in recent week than any other matter . ”
In May 2022 , Match oust Dubey and set up Bernard Kim as CEO , a former executive at the play companionship Zynga that vulgarise viral games like “ FarmVille . ”
While Dubey address frequently about confidence and safety and worked closely with Breeden , Kim hardly mentioned guard when he began his sentence at Match Group , instead emphasize the penury for continue speedy enlargement to drive long - terminal figure shareholder time value .
Lawrie said that Kim , with his background in gambling rather than dating apps , had no involvement in love . “ He just wants to make money . He ’s just there to increase win , ” Lawrie say . “ If he ’s looking at a bottom strain , then it ’s easier to have a suit than it is to render rubber . I know which one he ’s gon na pluck . ” Match Group declined to make Bernard Kim usable for an interview . Messages send to Kim right away move unreturned .
While the tenseness between growing and safety live across the tech sphere , it is especially in high spirits at see apps companies where executive have to care about unvarying butter churn — users leaving the apps when they are no longer looking for dates . Every time Match Group delivers on its promise , it also lose customers .
In February 2024 , six dating app usersfiled what they hope will be certified as a socio-economic class action lawsuit . They debate Match Group apply “ habit-forming ” feature to encourage determined use while not lead to any real increase in off - app relationship . “ The app is design specifically to hook them , and to keep them paying subscription fees — not to serve them find love , ” lawyer Ryan Clarkson say . Match Group filed to sack the lawsuit in September , noting in its quarterly report that it “ will hold smartly ” against the allegations .
Despite Kim ’s efforts , Match Group ’s stock price continued to overlook , and during that time , so did any mention of trust and guard . In over a year of quarterly investor call , Kim only reference safety travail once .
employee who fight for these enterprisingness were force out or laid off , including Breeden — a leader who was so convinced of her own invincibility that she showed up to an effect wielding a Captain America shield .
Match Group fired its power hire in October 2022 . layoff hit her team over the next several months . In February 2024 , the remaining critical police detective and law enforcement contact on Breeden ’s cardinal safety team were show the door .
Lawrie said mathematical group chat of former Match Group employee have been gossipping about the cutbacks .
“ You ’re not gon na see them taking safety gravely ever again , ” he enjoin , adding that the only thing that he mean might change that is lawmaking .
Four months before Matthews was arrested , a position on a Facebook group in Denver blew up , right around Christmas .
Over and over again , women furiously detail negative experiences they or their protagonist had with Matthews .
Some woman draw him as “ sketchy . ” Others call him “ abominable ” and “ not safe . ” Multiple women told a like , dark story : that they were offered potable , blacken out , and sexually assaulted .
As these stories circulate in this minor nook of the internet in December 2022 , the Denver heart specialist appease on Match Group apps .
Those fortunate enough to hump about the Facebook group — and who had the prevision to check for Matthews on it — would be save from a bad date or bad . But the fact that he could still log into Tinder and Hinge left him with a syndicate of thousands of unsuspecting women whom he could — and would — continue to twin with .
The Dating Apps Reporting Project is cognizant of four additional women who have accused Matthews of drugging and/or raping them who were not part of the reprehensible ill . Each of these adult female met Matthews on a Match Group app during a single year between the summers of 2020 and 2021 .
During the geezerhood Matthews was on their apps , Match Group employ and send away Breeden . It made flash promise on intimate violence , announced initiatives and product lines , and assure a transparence report . But it was not straight with the public , which meant the women matching with Matthews on Match Group apps were not cognizant of the risk they faced .
Match Group ’s partnership with Garbo , the backdrop tab companionship , also fall apart in the summertime of 2023 . “ It ’s become clear that most on-line platform are n’t legitimately committed to trustingness and safety for their users , ” Garbo wrote in asearing blog post .
After spending so much get-up-and-go talking about monetization , gamification , and growth , Kim start to in public acknowledge this job . speak at the Citibank conference in the fall of 2023 , he said the company was investing in new characteristic to make certain “ fair sex have a honorable experience while they ’re in the product . They feel dependable . They experience unafraid . Etc . ”
The “ etc . ” does not seem to include increase transparence about safe . Instead , in May 2023 , Tinder released a “ female - focused parcel , ” a curated listing of “ high - quality profile . ” It is unreadable how Tinder determines these high - tone friction match . Hinge ’s Standout feature , which is similar , had antecedently promoted Matthews .
In fact , under Kim ’s leadership , all mentions of a transparence report disappeared from the caller ’s yearly shock report . Ironically , this was around the same time that new lawmaking in Europe postulate tech companiesto bring out reportsof “ non - consensual demeanor ” and other way out . Match Group will be require to submit a transparence report to the European Union on the ambit of damage on their platforms later this calendar month . lawgiver in India and Australia are also demand transparency .
This is exactly the situation Breeden and her squad pondered three years ago . “ What if bring out in one legal power sparks a demand in another ? ” read a slide in the same internal presentation where Match Group ’s cartel - and - safety gadget leaders wonder whether they should “ push back on how much [ they ] are required to reveal . ”
After Match Group release a unsatisfying wage story in February 2025 that fell below psychoanalyst ’ expectation , it also announced that Kim would be supersede by former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff . spunk ’s revenue , sales , and indorser had all gone down .
As Match Group shin to reverse its decline , it ’s also aware that its reputation is in the spotlight . pay calls and shareholder letters over the first three quarter of 2024 designate that the caller know it is a business imperative to make women sense safer on its platforms . Match Group bring in a newfangled frailty chairman to lead trust and safety whose job partly focus on complying with increase globose transparency requirement . The company is experiment with requiring faces in photo and rolled out a“Share My Date ” feature so you may be tracked while meeting up with an on-line stranger . On Tinder , it orchestrated a “ major ecosystem cleanup spot ” geared toward identify fake profile and generate scammers off the app .
But neither the cleanup nor give chase a date from your phone would have stopped Matthews — a man who never sought to hide his identity , who attack his dates in his own home — from finding and harming women .
Four years after St. Matthew ’ first documented assault , he walk into a wood - paneled court in Denver and was doom to 158 years to life in prison . “ I will doom . I can not bring around , ” Judge Eric Johnson told the elbow room filled with survivors and family members .
“ Countless women have suffered and will continue to hurt , ” said Laura Wolf , an lawyer who represented the woman whose police force report triggered Matthews ’ arrest . “ flexible joint and other go steady political platform have accept no steps to insure the safety of the product they are selling , equal unsuspecting women to recognise predators without pause or business organisation . ”
Match Group did n’t make it comfortable for the Denver public prosecutor to convict Matthews . A search imprimatur was issued to Hinge in July 2023 . Two month by and by , prosecutors were still empty - handed — with the judge in the instance ask at a listening if he take to bulge out “ dragging people in to get stuff done . ” It was n’t until February 2024 that the Denver District Attorney ’s Office said they finally receive papers recall by Match Group .
Matthews will likely never leave prison house . Match Group administrator currently face no charges . But the ship’s company knew about Matthews , and it knows about thousands of other scurrilous exploiter . It has the data that could help users avoid unsafe situations , but it has n’t portion out it , leaving one thousand thousand of mass in the darkness .
lawgiver around the world are starting to ask for answers from the most powerful force play in forward-looking geological dating . In June , Colorado passed a jurisprudence , trigger off by the Matthews case , that forces date stamp app company to tell the State Department attorney generalwhat safety measures they are withdraw to protect users . Although the law leave room for the opening of additional transparency in the future , it does not presently require the party to recount the state , or the world , how many citizenry are raped or snipe after using its political platform . In the U.S. , we ’ve just scratched the airfoil . In most states , there ’s little that requires Match Group to portion out information with you — or with Congress .
The realness is that if Stephen Matthews were released today , he could get mighty back on a dating app . Match Group know this — and now so do you .
Stephanie Wolf contributed reporting . Statistical journalist Natasha Uzcátegui - Liggett lead The Markup ’s testing of Match Group apps .
This article wasoriginally publish on The Markupand was republish under theCreative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivativeslicense .
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