Dating app Bumble is getting rid of guns in photos. What about other dating services?
The dating app Bumble insists that its move to ban guns in profile photos is about safety.
It banned hate speech and inappropriate sexual content before, according to a blog post on the dating platform’s website.
“Gun violence is not in line with our values,” it reads. “Nor do these weapons belong on Bumble,” which is the kinder, gentler dating app where women have the sole power to start a conversation with potential male matches.
In an interview with the New York Times, Bumble chief executive Whitney Wolfe Herd went a step further, though, after nationwide calls for stricter gun control followed the latest mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
“Compared to what’s going on with Facebook and Twitter, we take a very proactive approach,” Herd told the Times. “If I could police every other social platform in the world, I would.”
In the world of intertwined dating and social media apps, “every other platform” most directly means Bumble’s chief rival, Tinder.
When entertainment site Mashable approached Tinder if its users should expect any updates to its photo policy in response to Bumble’s gun ban, a spokeswoman sent Mashable two statements that did not contain an answer to the question before telling the outlet “nothing has changed” in a telephone conversation.
Tinder’s community guidelines speak to violent and graphic content, but nothing specific about guns or other weapons.
“If there’s a weapon or firearm used in a threatening or offending way, then yes [we will remove it],” Rosette Pambakian, the Tinder spokeswoman told Mashable.
Herd was a co-founder and VP of Tinder before starting Bumble in 2014 to create a kinder, gentler space for online dating. To that end, Bumble has published blogs outing users who criticize other users for their physical appearance.
Herd sued then-Tinder CMO Justin Mateen, an ex-boyfriend, and another executive, upon her exit. She claimed, according to Reuters, that Mateen called her a “whore” in front of CEO Sean Rad. Herd received “just over $1 million” in that suit’s settlement, according to Business Insider.
Tinder is owned by the dating website Match, which is even less specific than its subsidiary in its photo posting guidelines. Match says photos will be rejected if they depict “illegal acts or violence,” but, again, no specific mention of guns.
E-Harmony’s photo guidelines are a little more specific. Photos that contain “weapons displayed in a threatening manner (e.g. pointed at the camera, another person, an animal, themselves) or (if) the person in the photo appears to be threatening the viewer” will be banned on that platform.
Bumble’s weapons ban will include knives as well as guns, but exceptions will be made in photos featuring uniformed law enforcement or military personnel.
This story was originally published March 7, 2018 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Dating app Bumble is getting rid of guns in photos. What about other dating services?."