Bumble has announced a ‘multi-year’ partnership with the National Domestic Violence Hotline as it looks to combat the rise in unhealthy and abusive relationships.
Over the course of five years, Bumble has been striving to change the narrative around women making the first move in their relationships – yet, across the US, one in four women and one in seven men have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
Cybil Zhang, Associate Director of Strategy and Social Impact at Bumble, said in a statement: “Bumble envisions a world free of misogyny, where all relationships are healthy, equitable, and empowering.
“Bumble is proud to support a crucial nonprofit like The Hotline, which is also based in our shared hometown of Austin, Texas. Through this sponsorship, we hope to demonstrate our continued commitment to creating healthy relationships on our platform and in our communities.”
After lockdown spurred reports of domestic violence rates rising around the world, Bumble donated $100,000 to The Hotline in March 2020 as part of the company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to putting survivors in closer proximity with their abusers, a special COVID-19 report from The Hotline has shown that shelter-in-place orders have increased stress, isolation, and financial strain that further compromised the safety of domestic abuse survivors.
Bumble has previously worked to curb abusive behaviour online by developing legislation that makes the unsolicited sending of lewd nude images punishable by law in their home state of Texas. The measure passed the Texas Senate unanimously in May, and became law on September 1, 2019.
Currently, Bumble is also sponsoring the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)’s research on extremism and domestic violence. News of the study will go live later this year and can be found at splcenter.org.
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