A Match Group investor has filed a lawsuit against current and former board members due to the company’s alleged failure to keep predators off its platforms. The case also claims that moderators refused to delete fake accounts as they encouraged more users to register for premium memberships.
Last October, an investigation from the Australian radio show ‘Triple J Hack’ found that Tinder offered inadequate support to victims of sexual harassment and abuse.
Only 11 of the 48 individuals who reported incidents received a response from the dating app, the majority of which were generic messages with little to no information about the actions taken.
Not long after the report from Triple J was published, Match Group partnered with RAINN, the biggest anti-sexual violence organisation in the US, to improve the way it deals with reports of sexual misconduct.
According to Bloomberg Law, the 167-page lawsuit claims that Match Group has been negligent, which may have led to other assaults taking place.
The issues surrounding fake profiles on Match.com were first raised by the US Federal Trade Commission in September 2019.
It stated that illegal practices were taking place as users were being told there were messages they couldn’t read unless they became a paying subscriber. It’s believed that Match Group knew it was promoting fake accounts and that almost half a million users paid to view these messages.
The new plaintiff alleges: “Match.com had the ability to detect potentially fraudulent users and block their communications…it did, but only for a fee. For nonsubscribers, on the other hand, Match.com used the fraudulent users to entice membership subscriptions.”
Match Group ascertained that it was more beneficial to the business to block fraudulent accounts and was prepared to “vigorously” defend itself in court. The US Department of Justice closed its investigation in September 2020.
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