Bumble CEO Seeks to Outlaw Unsolicited Lewd Images

Whitney Wolfe Herd has spoken to Marie Claire journalist Daphne Beal about Bumble’s plans for 2019.

The platform has over 35 million users in English and Spanish-speaking markets. Bumble BFF, the social tab on the app, has just crossed the 3 million mark.

Wolfe Herd told Beal about her plans to further the feminist brand. In 2019, Bumble will release its own line of beauty products – apparently designed to solve both “skin” and “emotional” problems.

It will include a facial oil for “breakups and breakouts”, for example, which is set to be named “Break Up with Bad”.

The CEO is also working with US legislators in an attempt to criminalise the sending of lewd images. Her argument is that unsolicited sexual attention, be it a photo or an eggplant emoji, must beget repercussions.

She likens the hostile sending of a sexual image to someone running a stop sign, saying: “If you run it, you get arrested. Laws attach consequence.”

The piece also details some of the blowback Bumble received after banning images of guns on its platform.

Credible threats of violence followed the move, causing the local police force to set up camp at the office for a week.

Since that time, Bumble has begun employing full time security personnel. Wolfe Herd has also started to travel with a bodyguard.

Read more here.