Courting App Rape Survivors File Lawsuit Accusing Hinge, Tinder Of ‘Accommodating Rapists’ –

[ad_1] by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors December 26, 2025

Six girls who had been drugged and raped or sexually assaulted by the identical Denver heart specialist filed a lawsuit towards Match Group on Dec. 16, accusing the world’s largest relationship app firm of “accommodating rapists throughout its merchandise” via “negligence” and a “faulty” product.

The ladies, backed by 4 regulation corporations, stated that by permitting recognized abusers like Stephen Matthews to stay on its apps, Tinder and Hinge, even after they're reported for rape, the corporate fostered a breeding floor for “sexual predators.”

“Even when Match Group receives stories about rapists, they proceed to welcome them, fail to warn customers in regards to the normal and particular dangers, and affirmatively advocate recognized predators to members,” the grievance stated. “Rapists know every Match Group platform provides a catalog of accessible victims.”

Although Match Group claimed to a survivor who reported Matthews that that they had “completely banned” him, the go well with contends, he remained lively on Hinge — and was even promoted as a “Standout” match.

“Courting apps have an obligation to guard their customers from recognized risks,” stated Carrie Goldberg, one of many attorneys representing Matthews’ survivors. Goldberg, who is thought for high-profile lawsuits towards giant firms, together with Amazon and Meta, and high-profile abusers, like Harvey Weinstein, stated “Stephen Matthews was a recognized hazard,” calling relationship apps “doubtlessly essentially the most harmful product.”

The 54-page grievance, filed in Denver District Courtroom, cites an 18-month investigation into Match Group by the Courting App Reporting Mission, printed in The Markup in February.

In October 2024, Matthews was sentenced to 158 years to life in jail. He was convicted in August of 35 counts of drugging and/or sexually assaulting 11 girls between 2019 and 2023. The six girls bringing civil go well with towards Match Group are continuing anonymously to guard their identities.

Match Group didn't present a remark earlier than publication. In February, in an announcement offered to the Courting App Reporting Mission by firm spokesperson Kayla Whaling, the corporate forged itself as an trade chief in deploying know-how to advertise security, together with “harassment-preventing AI instruments, ID verification for profiles, and a portal that helps us higher assist and talk with regulation enforcement investigating crimes. … Each particular person deserves protected and respectful experiences. We're dedicated to doing the work to make relationship safer on our platforms and past.”

“We acknowledge our position in fostering safer communities and selling genuine and respectful connections worldwide,” the February assertion 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 protected, each on-line and once they join in actual life.”

The Courting Apps Reporting Mission investigation discovered that Match Group, an $8 billion relationship app behemoth that operates in additional than 40 languages and 190 international locations, had recognized the size of hurt on its platforms for years, however stored that data secret. It promised to publish a transparency report back to share this knowledge with the general public in 2022, however by no means adopted via. After the Courting Apps Reporting Mission investigation in February, mentions of this promise have been faraway from the corporate’s web site. The investigation additionally discovered that Match Group scaled again essential belief and security groups.

Matthews was first reported to Hinge in 2020 however remained on Match Group apps, the investigation discovered, persevering with to match with and assault girls till 2023 when one survivor walked right into a Denver police station.

Counting on the Courting App Reporting Mission’s investigation, together with new particulars from a survivor’s makes an attempt to warn the corporate of hazard, the Denver lawsuit particulars the heart specialist’s yearslong sexual assault spree on Hinge. Even after being reported a number of instances, Matthews was capable of proceed to match with and assault girls — often with the identical sample — disarming them methodically with a visit to the park along with his canine, a brunch close to his townhouse, or a sport of Jenga.

The lawsuit calls Hinge’s product design “faulty,” alleging a nasty actor can simply unmatch with a sufferer earlier than they report them. “As soon as unmatched, the reporting possibility disappears,” the lawsuit stated.

Product testing carried out by the Courting Apps Reporting Mission discovered that banned customers had been simply capable of rejoin Tinder, with out altering their title, birthday, or profile photograph, as late as February 2025.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for the plaintiffs.

One of many girls suing Match Group informed the Courting Apps Reporting Mission that she was initially intrigued by a profile displaying a good-looking physician mountaineering along with his canine in 2023. “This man has it collectively,” she thought.

Alexa, then a 22-year-old girl, whose final title is being withheld to guard her privateness, met Matthews at his home, the place he provided her a shot. Not lengthy after, she stated, she began stumbling. Matthews then pushed her right into a bed room and started kissing her, she stated. That’s when Alexa stated she blacked out.

After being contacted by the Denver District Lawyer’s workplace, she was infuriated to study that Matthews had been reported to Hinge three years earlier than her assault.

“Hinge was chargeable for giving him a platform,” Alexa stated. “They'd all the facility and the assets to forestall this from taking place.”

Authorized analysts say the lawsuit faces an uphill battle towards Part 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 regulation that grants on-line platforms immunity from legal responsibility for many user-generated content material.

In 2019, Goldberg herself misplaced an effort to sue Grindr, a homosexual relationship app, on behalf of a consumer who claimed the app’s know-how resulted in males following him for intercourse. The courts sided with the app and dominated that they had been immune from legal responsibility as a result of Part 230.

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom in Gonzalez v. Google declined to rule on whether or not tech platforms like YouTube are chargeable for terrorist content material really useful to customers by their algorithms, with households of ISIS victims suing; the court docket remanded the case to the Ninth Circuit and referenced their determination in a separate case, Twitter v. Taamneh, discovering “little if any” declare for reduction.

Match says it's enhancing the protection of its apps. Throughout its most up-to-date earnings name in November, Match Group and Tinder CEO Spencer Rascoff stated the corporate was “doubling down on belief and security throughout our platforms” as a result of “belief is core” to its “long run success.” He spoke of the protection instruments being built-in into the corporate’s portfolio — like video verification know-how, suggestion algorithms, and AI-assisted moderation instruments.

A few of these instruments, Rascoff admitted, are reducing the apps’ month-to-month lively customers, however, he added, “the truth that we’re capable of enhance consumer outcomes at minimal affect to income” is “a great signal.”

Since 2022, the corporate has been struggling to return its inventory value to even a 3rd of its peak. Rascoff, a enterprise capitalist and cofounder of the true property web site Zillow, minimize headcount on the firm by 13% after taking the reins in February.

In December 2025, the Courting Apps Reporting Mission retested whether or not banned customers may nonetheless join new accounts on Match Group’s relationship apps, with out mendacity about who they're. Testing confirmed that banned customers may join once more on Hinge, Loads of Fish, and OkCupid with the very same title, birthday, and profile images used of their banned accounts. Match Group didn't reply to an inquiry in regards to the product testing.

On Tinder, nevertheless, testing confirmed that some new customers at the moment are prompted to take a video selfie, in order that Tinder can use facial recognition to “affirm customers are actual and match their profile images.” The brand new safety characteristic is named Face Examine, and Tinder has launched it in a number of states and international locations. This characteristic additionally could not have prevented Stephen Matthews from returning to a relationship app, as he by no means lied about who he was.

Reporters additionally checked their outdated accounts from February, which had the identical title, birthday, and profile images because the banned accounts, to see whether or not Match Group or its moderation programs ultimately banned them. Each account that reporters checked was nonetheless in good standing.

Alexa believes that she wouldn’t have been harmed if Hinge had invested extra in prioritizing girls’s security. “If these firms are making billions of {dollars}, they positively have the assets to make them efficient and protected,” she stated.

She stated she now not makes use of relationship apps.

“I'll by no means date the identical once more,” Alexa stated. “I’ve type of even accepted that I'd be completely high quality being alone for the remainder of my life if it means preserving myself protected from what occurred to me.”

The Courting Apps Reporting Mission produced this story in partnership with the Pulitzer Middle’s AI Accountability Community and The Markup, now part of CalMatters, and copublished with The Guardian and The nineteenth.