Updated February 25, 2025 at 16:57 PM ET
Dating apps are a new norm in American romance. According to a 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center, one in 10 partnered adults in the U.S. met their significant other online.
But a recent investigation into one of the biggest dating app companies shows that online dating still comes with safety risks.
A team of journalists recently took a close look at Match Group, the $8 billion online dating behemoth that owns the biggest dating apps, including Tinder and Hinge. Their investigation found that it's easy for users accused of assault to continue using the apps.
Investigative reporter Emily Elena Dugdale worked on the Dating Apps Reporting Project, which was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center's A.I. Accountability Network. Dugdale recently spoke with Morning Edition host Michel Martin about the team's findings, and how Match Group has — and has not — sought to address them.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Some parts were not part of the broadcast version.
Michel Martin: In your reporting, you start with a disturbing case involving a cardiologist in Denver who was, in October, sentenced to a lengthy prison term after a jury convicted him for sexually assaulting and drugging multiple women. How is Match Group involved in that case?
Emily Elena Dugdale: Stephen Matthews used Match Group apps Tinder and Hinge to match with and then sexually assault and drug women. He was reported in the app as far back as 2020, but was able to continue using [the apps] and assault women for years. He was only stopped when a survivor went to the police. In fact, after he was reported, he was even featured as a "standout" date on Hinge, which means the app actually promoted his profile to women looking for matches.
Martin: You wrote that Match Group actually dismantled safety efforts that they rolled out five years ago, after pressure from Wall Street investors. What happened?
Dugdale: On the heels of some bad press, Match Group created a new safety team in 2020 and promised to release what's known in tech circles as a transparency report, which would tell the public about the number of people reported for rape and other bad activity on their platforms so that users can assess their risk. Five years have passed, but that report hasn't been published.
Martin: Why not?
Dugdale: Good question. We got hundreds of internal company documents. They showed the company waffled over what information to keep secret. And one employee wrote that they felt pressured to cut corners. They wrote, "The obsession with metrics and having to stick with them is frustrating and potentially dangerous. This is not the way we were meant to work, and people's lives are at risk."
Martin: What does Match Group have to say about all this?
Dugdale: We sent Match Group a four-page statement detailing everything we've found. The company responded with a short statement. Match Group said it was an industry leader on safety using "harassment-preventing AI tools, ID verification for profiles and investments in communicating with law enforcement." They said they're committed to doing the work to make dating safer on the platforms, but that's not what we found when we tested their apps.
We partnered with The Markup, who led an experiment where we created dating profiles that we reported for sexual assault and then were banned. We found that users could quickly create Tinder accounts with the exact same name, birthday and profile photos used on their banned accounts. They can also hop over to Hinge and other apps without changing those details.
That cardiologist I was talking about was sentenced to 158 years in prison. But the reality is, if he were released today, he could get right back on a dating app.
Martin: The same company owns these apps. Why don't they ban bad actors across platforms?
Dugdale: I think one of the issues, when we talked to employees, was that it takes a lot of human labor and time to be able to thoroughly investigate these cases. We quoted one of these employees, Michael Lawrie, who said he was sometimes spending hours on a case, and felt a lot of pressure to speed up. These investigators are not cheap, and the company really wanted to go a cheaper route. 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.
Martin: Some might argue, well, millions of people use dating apps and they have some bad experiences. But people who meet people in other ways have bad experiences, too. What would you say to that?
Dugdale: I think the issue here is that Match Group knows there are people on their apps who are on there to harm others, and they could share that information so that users could assess their risk and decide whether or not they want to use that platform. I think it's different from going into a bar, where you take some precautions. You know there are strangers there who may want to take advantage of you. The app knows that there are people there who want to take advantage of you, and they could share that information to help you make an informed decision.
Martin: Let's stay with that bar analogy. When you go into a bar, the bartender probably knows who the bad actors are. Presumably it's a place that you normally go to, and somebody there might give you a heads up and say, "Hey, maybe stay away from that guy." I think what you're saying is that Match actually has that same relationship with these people, but doesn't share that information.
Dugdale: Correct. And in the case with this cardiologist, Stephen Matthews, these women did try to do exactly what you're saying. They tried to warn others. They reported this man multiple times, and yet he was still able to continue to be on that app and harm women.
Martin: Did your reporting yield any clues about how people can use these apps safely, in the absence of an aggressive effort by the companies to protect users?
Dugdale: Our reporting was really focused on internal safety issues and what was happening under the hood. But I think in talking to these safety employees, it's clear that [users] just have to keep their guard up. I think a lot of folks let their guard down when they see someone that they can identify with – the Denver cardiologist had a dog, he was a doctor. People let their guard down. I think you just have to remember that the app is not invested in your safety – they are invested in money. So you need to treat every match that you make online as someone who could be dangerous.
Ana Perez produced the audio version of this piece.
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