Elie Seidman has written a blog post addressing the trans community and acknowledging the difficulties they face when using Tinder. He also took the opportunity to outline how he plans to make the platform more inclusive going forward.
Recently, there have been a significant number of complaints from trans users who were wrongly being banned because some individuals had chosen to flag their profiles while browsing.
This happened despite the fact that Tinder added new gender options in 2016 which let singles choose, from a list of 40, which identity represents them most accurately. Members can decide if they want to show their gender on their profile, and whether they appear in the ‘male’ or ‘female’ search stack.
Two trans women detailed their experiences to BBC News, revealing they felt “shocked”, “confused” and “incredibly let down” after finding out they’d been banned when they hadn’t broken any rules.
Seidman explained that the team didn’t want cisgender users to be able to filter out trans profiles. However, he did admit that this decision has led to higher reporting rates.
Tinder has since implemented changes to its complaints process to make sure fewer people are being kicked out wrongly. These changes include improving support channels to engage with the community more quickly, and adding in-app warnings to explain which guidelines users are in violation of, rather than just banning them as a first response to flags.
Staff are also receiving extra diversity and inclusivity training, while the app continues to produce original video content featuring real users talking about their identities.
The Tinder CEO said in his statement: “Since implementing these changes, we’ve been able to meaningfully increase the number of trans people who remain on Tinder despite unwarranted reports.
“I’m encouraged by the progress we’ve made, and am dedicated to continuing our assessment and refinement of Tinder’s reporting structure.”
Read more here.