Popular dating app Tinder blocked a campaign against abuse towards young women and schoolgirls, after a fake profile was reported to its admin team.
Non-profit organisation Plan International Norway created a fake Tinder profile as part of its 2015 Because I am a Girl campaign about anti-violence towards woman and schoolgirls.
The campaign, created in collaboration with PR company Trigger, began on 20th September and ran for 24 hours, in an effort to use “all available digital channels” to flood the internet with images of violence.
Speaking about the campaign before it launched, Kjell Erik Øie, Secretary General, Plan International Norway said: “We will be using all available digital channels and strong images to make people react and get involved.
“The Internet has given us a unique opportunity to highlight the extent of violence against and abuse of school girls.”
The Tinder profile was named Maria, and contained an image of her face severely beaten up.
Once users matched with the fake profile, the user would receive a message, asking him to join the cause to help stop the harassment of young women and schoolgirls.
After about half an hour of trying to match with as many users as possible, Trigger’s creative advisor received a notification, saying the account had been reported for the use of “inappropriate images,” and “bad behavior.”
The account was suspended an hour after its final warning.
Plan International also had a video removed by social network Facebook’s ad team during the day-long digital campaign.
The organisation posted a fictional video showing a young women being harassed and beaten in school to its Facebook page, but the video was rejected with the view that “the image or video thumbnail may shock or evoke negative response from viewers.”