HUD App Moderation Partnership ‘Making An Impact’ Following Latest Online Safety Report Release

A recent case study revealed how HUD App are ‘beginning to see fewer fraudulent profiles’ following their moderation partnership. 

The online safety report from content moderator brand WebPurify, published this month, showed their collaboration with HUD App has resulted in 200 app users suspended each day on average. The suspension is for reasons such as violating policies or being reported by another user. 

Since it arrived on the dating app scene in 2015, HUD has attracted an impressive 16.5 million users to its platform. 

The partnership, which started last year, meant a high volume of user verification had to be completed each day as the New Zealand dating brand reportedly raked up to 6,000 daily sign-ups.

Both companies collaborated as HUD App wanted to enhance online safety and prevent scams on the dating app. In 2022, reported losses of romance scamming hit a staggering $1.3 billion, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission.

The case study also highlighted, out of the 200 daily suspensions, approximately 160 of those had been identified as a scam account.  

Before the partnership, HUD reported to have vigilant moderators and rely on tools, like photo verification, to deal with AI-generated or enhanced images and keep fake profiles out. However, they candidly admitted that scale and speed was one of the biggest content moderation challenges they face. 

Amanda Kuhns, HUD App Community Experience Team Manager, said: “The way that they have multiple moderators who can overlap with each other means we never get behind and the queue is always cleared quickly, meaning any potential scammers will be stopped quickly, too…

“Working with WebPurify’s moderators has brought a different perspective to the process. They would pose questions that maybe we’d never asked ourselves because we were used to getting through it as fast and as accurately as possible. But they would point out potential issues before they became a larger problem.”