Tinder and OkCupid Could Soon Let You Background Check Your Date — for a Price – By Brian Edwards and Elizabeth Naismith Picciani (Columbia Journalism Investigations) / Mar 18 2021
Dogged by questions about sexual violence, Match Group — which owns Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, OkCupid, PlentyofFish and others — is investing in a company that aims to enable background checks on apps. Some legislators say it’s not enough.
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
When dating app behemoth Match Group announced on Monday a “seven-figure” investment in a startup called Garbo, which aspires to help app users conduct background checks on prospective dates, it was the fourth significant safety initiative the company had announced since the start of last year. The company had previously hired a new head of safety from Uber, announced a review of its practices relating to sexual assault response and invested in another startup, Noonlight, which provides tools such as a phone-based panic button that can alert law enforcement if a user feels threatened.
Match Group first began unveiling its new steps days before the chair of a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform announced an investigation of dating app safety early last year in the wake of what he called “extremely troubling reports.” Those reports included an in-depth examination by Columbia Journalism Investigations and ProPublica, which revealed that Match Group screens for registered sex offenders on its paid Match.com app but does not do so on its free apps, which include OkCupid, PlentyofFish and Tinder. “There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products,” a Match Group spokesperson acknowledged to CJI and ProPublica at the time.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee followed suit, citing the CJI and ProPublica article and targeting Match Group in particular. Legislators called on the company to disclose its efforts to “respond to reports of sexual violence.” U.S. Reps. Ann Kuster, D-N.H., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., urged the company to conduct screening checks and “provide a basic level of protection” for both free and paid users.
