Contributed by: kellyseal on Friday, March 22 2024 @ 11:44 am
Last modified on Friday, March 22 2024 @ 11:55 am
Yoel Roth, former head of Trust & Safety at Twitter, has now accepted a position as vice president of trust and safety at Match Group.
According to Tech Crunch, Roth will be responsible for developing policies and standards concerning safety across all Match Group apps.
The new VP made the announcement on his LinkedIn page[*1] : “As they say… some personal news! I swiped right on Match Group! 15 years ago, I started studying what we now call ‘trust and safety’ because the then-new world of dating apps felt like the Wild West; it’s truly a dream come true to get to roll up my sleeves and work to protect the millions of people making connections on our apps worldwide.”
Roth wrote his PhD dissertation on safety and privacy in dating apps, so the move seems a good fit for both Roth and Match Group. The company has struggled with safety issues on its suite of popular dating apps, including Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge and BLK, as do many dating apps.
Roth also called the offer a “dream job,” according to Tech Crunch[*2] .
Roth was head of trust and safety for Twitter for seven years prior to Elon Musk’s purchase of the company, and when he left, endured extensive bullying and false accusations directed at him on Twitter, including from his former boss Elon Musk.
Shortly after Musk took over, the now-debunked “Twitter Files” were released which shared internal documents revealing how Roth and other executives made decisions regarding content moderation. Musk himself also personally attacked Roth with fraudulent claims, making him a target of dangerous and homophobic harassment. Even after he left Twitter, Roth had to flee his home as dangerous threats mounted.
Roth is in a unique position to head trust and safety, not only with his knowledge and experience, but particularly because he’s experienced online harassment himself.
Although Match Group has made strides on its apps to protect its users, including adding AI-based verification tools to ensure a person is who they say they are, dating app users can still feel vulnerable and threatened on apps. Scammers are getting increasingly saavy about luring dating app users and extorting them for money. Last year, the FTC reported that romance scam victims lost a combined $1.3 billion US in 2022 alone.
Roth said he wants to build features to protect users from financial fraud, according to Tech Crunch. He also wants to implement protections across platforms to help Match Group remove spam accounts.
Roth also called upon the app stores to do their part in identifying underage users to protect them from accessing dating apps, where they are often exploited.