Grindr General Counsel Responds to New York Times Criticism

Grindr has responded to a New York Times opinion article that suggested most queer dating apps were deliberately designed to be unsafe.

Ari Ezra Waldman, author of the original piece and a professor at New York Law School, focused his argument on the act of image-sharing. He claimed that men who sent pictures to matches were putting their dignity and jobs at risk, referencing a user who said men who don’t send pictures struggle to “participate” in online dating.

In the penultimate paragraph of his article, Waldman called out Grindr for allegedly not responding to 100 complaints from Matthew Herrick, a man who suffered continuous harassment after his ex created a fake, explicit profile using his image. 

The gay dating app escaped paying damages as it was found to not be responsible for user generated content under section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act.

Grindr’s general counsel Bill Shafton published a retort in the same publication, insisting that the claims made in reference to the legal case were “simply not true”.

Shafton wrote: “Grindr worked closely with law enforcement and took extensive steps to delete and ban fraudulent accounts, including investigating hundreds of email addresses, profile names and accounts; conducting voluntary daily searches; and searching account profile content for any potential reference to the physical addresses, phone numbers and other relevant information identified by Mr. Herrick and/or law enforcement.”

He went on to express his sympathy for Matthew Herrick, but reiterated that the issue was dismissed by the United States District Court and the Court of Appeals.

Read more here.