Bumble Removes Politics Filter After Capitol Riots ‘Misuse’

Bumble has temporarily removed its politics filter, apparently after a number of women tried to match with people who participated in last week’s Capitol riots in order to notify the FBI.

The trend started on 7th January, the same day that thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building, when Twitter user Alia Awadallah posted that she’d seen a number of men on dating apps boasting about their involvement.

Awadallah then updated that she’d alerted the FBI about the profiles and encouraged her followers to do the same.

The most-liked reply came from Allison Norris who said: “I know a friend of a friend who changed her preference on Bumble to conservative. She’s matching with MAGA bros and they’re bragging and sending her pics and videos of them in the Capitol. She’s sending them to the FBI.”

Bumble made a statement assuring that it was working hard to identify which users were present at the riots and banning them indefinitely.

However, people online criticised the dating and social app for removing the political filter, claiming that it was protecting the “insurrectionists” from being discovered. Bumble responded again to state that it was temporarily taken down to “prevent misuse”.

A spokesperson from the FBI told The Independent that it has received upwards of 100,000 “digital tips”.

A number of right-wing dating apps have been created during President Trump’s term, as supporters have often received abuse for their political beliefs on mainstream platforms.

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