Dating App Giant Fails to Protect Against Dangerous Daters

When Match.com first launched in 1995, it couldn’t have known how it would grow into the dating app giant known as Match Group, which now owns the most popular dating apps in the world, including Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, and Plenty of Fish. Match’s objective has always been deceptively simple: “Match is on a mission to help single adults find their perfect match.” But not every single adult has pure intentions when they sign up for a dating app. And in 2025, Match Group’s failure to protect its users from these dangerous daters once again made headlines.

Investigative journalists Emily Elena Dugdale and Hanisha Harjani examined hundreds of Match Group’s internal documents, interviewed former employees, and even created fake dating profiles to answer the question, “Does Match Group do enough to protect its users from dangerous daters?” The answer, they found, is a resounding “no.”

Dugdale and Harjani worked in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network and The Markup (now part of CalMatters), and copublished their findings with The Guardian and The 19th. These resources helped Dugdale and Harjani come to the conclusion that there’s more Match Group — and dating apps in general — can do to keep banned users from rejoining the platform they were banned from.

“While Match Group has long possessed the tools, financial resources and investigative procedures necessary to make it harder for bad actors to resurface, internal documents show the company has resisted efforts to spread them across its apps, in part because safety protocols could stall corporate growth,” the journalists wrote in their exposé, which was published in LAist in February.

The User’s Safety Vs. The Company’s Dime

One such “bad actor” is a man named Stephen Matthews. As Dugdale and Harjani detailed, at least 15 women have come forward to accuse Matthews of sexual assault. Most women reported the assault to the dating app that matched them with Matthews in the first place, many of which are owned by Match Group, including Tinder and Hinge.

Matthews was first reported for rape on a Match Group site in 2020. It wasn’t until 2024 that Matthews found himself in front of a judge, being sentenced to 158 years to life in prison. He was convicted of 34 counts related to drugging and/or sexually assaulting 11 women.

The survivors told Match Group what happened to them, and Match Group subsequently banned Matthews from its apps. But from 2020-2023, Matthews still found his way back onto Match Group’s most popular dating apps.

At one point, Matthews was even featured as a “standout” date on Hinge after he was reported to the police for assault. Being a “standout” means that a user’s profile is promoted to more singles — or victims, in Matthews’ case.

Dating apps are in the business of love, but as any executive can tell you, business is in the business of, well, business. Match Group has had a particularly tough time balancing the needs of its users with its own need to bring in profits and remain competitive.

Dugdale and Harjani found that Match Group has recorded users accused of rape and assault in a central database since 2019. In 2020, Match Group promised to release a transparency report detailing troubling reports made by users. As of 2025, this report has not been released.

“Internal company documents from 2019 and 2020 show thousands of reports of ‘serious physical assault,’ abuse, or violence on OkCupid that were deemed serious enough to get users banned from all of Match Group’s apps,” Dugdale and Harjani reported. “This is among the information the company kept from the public.”

By downplaying the reports — or allegedly doing nothing about them at all — Match Group was able to retain users, particularly those who pay to use its apps.

What’s stopping Match Group from thoroughly investigating reports, strengthening bans, and protecting its users? Dugdale emphasized how Match Group’s actions (or inactions) are all about the bottom line. After all, it takes time, money, and effort to curate a team of dedicated investigators whose main goal is to prevent banned accounts from popping up again.

“These investigators are not cheap, and the company really wanted to go a cheaper route,” Dugdale told NPR. “A lot of that work was outsourced to folks who don’t have that same level of experience. Therefore, it’s harder to ferret out people who are good at getting back on these apps.”

She later told NPR, “You just have to remember that the app is not invested in your safety — they are invested in money.”

Safety Features Offer Reassurance — Not Guarantees

Still, apps owned by Match Group have implemented several features to help keep users safe. According to the app’s list of safety features, users can unmatch with someone if that person makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Once unmatched, the users won’t be able to message each other again. Tinder also introduced photo verification, as well as photo verified chats, to crack down on scammers and catfish. As helpful as these features are, they only go so far to protect the user.

Hinge encourages users to report bad behavior, but it doesn’t promise that bad actors will be totally banned from the app. “The moment someone is reported, we make sure you never see each other’s profile again,” according to the app’s safety page. Hinge’s First Date Check-In feature is the closest Match Group gets to addressing a user’s in-person behavior. “Our in-app survey, ‘We Met’, asks if you went on a date after exchanging phone numbers. If you did, we ask if they’re the type of person you’d like to see again. If not, you’re given the opportunity to share with us any inappropriate behavior.”

The app doesn’t say whether a user will be banned if bad behavior is proven to be true. It also doesn’t explain how it plans to keep banned users from resurfacing on the app.

Dugdale and Harjani reached out to Match Group to hear its side of the story, and received a brief response from Kayla Whaling, senior director of communications. She acknowledged Match Group’s efforts to provide a safe user experience, and said that the company “takes every report of misconduct seriously, and vigilantly removes and blocks accounts that have violated our rules regarding this behavior.”

Match Group addresses safety concerns further on its website by mentioning its partnership with Kodex, a platform that streamlines communications between Match Group and law enforcement if — and when — users report assault to the police.

“As a company, we are committed to helping users date more safely and are continuously investing in ways to enhance the safety and tools offered across Match Group’s portfolio,” according to the company’s statement on safety.

As The Industry Evolves, So Must Safety Measures

Dugdale and Harjani collaborated with The Markup to put Match Group’s claim to the test. The investigators created fake dating profiles and then reported those accounts for sexual assault. The accounts were banned… only to go unnoticed (or unflagged) when the journalists and The Markup recreated the profiles with the exact same names, photos, and birthdays. “The reality is, if [Matthews] were released today, he could get right back on a dating app,” Dugdale told NPR.

It’s a chilling thought, but it comes at an inopportune time for dating app companies like Match Group.

Despite high engagement rates at the height of the pandemic, some dating apps, like Tinder, have declined in value ever since. Match Group’s frequent leadership changes over the last five years just may reflect the industry’s current period of flux. In 2022, Shar Dubey stepped down after two years as CEO and was replaced by Bernard Kim. Kim was replaced by Spencer Rascoff in 2025, allegedly because he “struggled to cut costs and end the steady decline in subscribers to Match Group’s most powerful app, Tinder,” according to Dugdale and Harjani. And in March 2025, Match Group announced that COO Gary Swindler is stepping down, to be replaced by fellow Match Group senior leader, Hesam Hosseini.

To some, high-profile leadership changes are a sign that user complaints are being heard. Others believe that dating app safety must become a national priority if true progress is to be made. Although some states have taken steps to protect its citizens from romance scams, any hopes of passing national legislation was quashed in 2024. Plus, the bill only covered financial fraud, not accusations of abuse.

Naturally, people look instead to the platform they’re using for guidance. But as of today, dating app companies like Match Group are still not required to disclose reported sexual assaults to its users. And despite some dating apps having investigative teams to look out for bad actors and predators, this certainly isn’t an industrywide standard. Perhaps Match Group’s current controversy will motivate leaders to set this standard, once and for all.