US

There Are ‘Definitely’ Sex Offenders On Tinder, And The App Says It Can’t Fully Screen For Them

BigTunaOnline, Shutterstock

Anders Hagstrom White House Correspondent
Font Size:

The group behind Tinder and OkCupid doesn’t screen its users for sex offenses, according to a report published by Columbia Journalism Investigations and ProPublica. This is despite women suing the matchmaking platforms multiple times, saying they were raped by men using the dating apps with undisclosed criminal records.

The Match Group, which owns dating apps Tinder, OkCupid, and Plenty of Fish, has settled multiple lawsuits on the promise that it would expand its vetting of users for violent crimes. But it still doesn’t sufficiently vet users on its free dating apps, the lawsuits allege. Only paid users on its website Match.com can rest assured that they won’t match anyone with a violent sexual history, as has repeatedly happened on its other services, according to the BuzzFeed report. (RELATED: Beto Laments That People In Rural Areas Can’t Use Tinder)

Dating app/ Shutterstock

(Dating app/ Shutterstock)

“There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products,” Match Group said, according to BuzzFeed. The company added that it “takes the safety, security and well-being of our users very seriously,” and that “a relatively small amount of the tens of millions of people using one of our dating services have fallen victim to criminal activity by predators.”

The terms of service for Match Group’s free apps tell users it is up to them to vet their matches, but many do not. CJI investigated more than 150 reports of sexual assault involving dating apps and found that in 10 percent of the cases, the victim matched someone with who had been accused or convicted of sexual assault but did not disclose it on the app. While the vast majority of the cases happened on Match Group’s free apps, its premium service Match.com reportedly had none. (RELATED: Tinder-Rival Dating App Will Debut In The US)

Markham Erickson, a lawyer who argued for Match Group against requiring background checks, claims part of the problem is how difficult it is to effectively vet someone on a free app. Without requiring payment information, all a sex offender would have to do is is provide a fake name to pass a sex offender registry check, he told CJI.

Match Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The report comes weeks after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Match Group, alleging it “conned” users on its free apps into purchasing premium Match.com accounts.

“We believe that Match.com conned people into paying for subscriptions via messages the company knew were from scammers,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC bureau of consumer protection, according to a press release. “Online dating services obviously shouldn’t be using romance scammers as a way to fatten their bottom line.”

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel