Safety

Since Tinder was banned in Pakistan, young singles are flocking to private Facebook groups to meet others to date, even though Facebook Dating is not available in the country.

One of the most popular Facebook groups is Two Rings, a volunteer-run matchmaking group that does not charge its users any fees. It currently has about 228,000 members, and at least 335 couples have found spouses through the group, according to news source Rest of World.

"Instead of waiting on their parents or family to find somebody, they are actually now doing it all on their own," a cofounder of a Facebook dating group for graduates of some of Pakistan’s premier business schools told Business Insider.

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble is rekindling its “Stand for Safety” initiative in India to help combat online abuse.

According to Business Today India, the company released a guidebook created in partnership with the Centre for Social Research (CSR), a non-profit, and Nyaaya, an open-access digital resource center that educates people about their rights. The guide will “drive awareness around digital safety and support the community in recognizing and combating online abuse, bullying, and discrimination.”

Bumble decided to relaunch the initiative after conducting a survey across India on the scope and effects of online harassment. The company found that 50 percent of respondents had seen hateful online content, and around 40 percent have faced hate speech and bullying in regard to their particular community, or to their physical appearance.

Alex Hofman, a tech investor and former president of Musical.ly (which later became TikTok), has launched a new dating app called Spark.

Spark employs some traditional dating app features with a twist, and with some extra safety precautions. According to Tech Crunch, when a user logs in, they are presented with a grid of potential matches who are on the app at the same time. If the user sees someone they are interested in, they can like the photo – and if there is a mutual like, they can start chatting, but they only have 24 hours to respond or the match goes away.

Tech Crunch pointed out that while there is no swiping like in traditional dating apps, it has a mixture of similar features. Grindr for example, presents users with a grid of multiple people, but they don’t have to match before being able to message each other which leads to a lot of unwanted communication. Bumble puts a 24-hour time limit on matches to encourage them to communicate more quickly.

Many dating app users have complained about getting unsolicited nude photos, and are now demanding digital consent before a communicating with a match.

Dating apps have been struggling with what to do about this issue for a while, but since the pandemic attracted many new users to dating apps, the problem has grown. According to The New York Post, A World Wide Web Foundation survey found that 52 percent of young women and girls said they had experienced online abuse, including threatening messages, sexual harassment and being sent lewd photos without consent. A whopping majority of 87 percent said they believe the issue is only getting worse. 

Dating app Bumble launched a feature called Private Detector to counteract this problem. Private Detector works with AI to detect when a nude photo is sent and blurs the picture before the recipient can see it, allowing them to block and report the user without having to see it first.

Image: Bumble

Bumble Inc has taken a big step in assisting users who have experienced sexual assault and abuse through its new online trauma support center, created in partnership with Bloom and now available to users of its Bumble and Badoo dating apps.

The support center offers online courses to help with emotional healing, and is available to users who report sexual assault or relationship abuse over the apps. They will receive a code for free access to a customized version of Bloom’s support specific to daters, with three self-guided courses: Healing from Sexual Trauma; Society, Patriarchy, and Sexual Trauma; and Dating, Boundaries, and Relationships. The dating apps will also offer one-on-one chat support and up to six therapy sessions for certain cases.

Kenya Fairley, Bumble’s Head of Member Safety Support said in a statement: “We are grateful to be able to remove many known barriers that survivors face when seeking trauma support, from privacy to cost, to allow them the opportunity to begin their healing journey at their own pace."

A new Connecticut bill aiming to improve safety on dating apps just advanced from the judiciary committee to the Senate for a vote. If passed, it could set a precedent for the rest of the country.

The legislation would force online dating sites to verify the identity of users and provide that information if presented with a warrant, subpoena or court order, according to CT Insider. It would also establish new education and training programs to combat online abuse and designates “grooming” (befriending minors to abuse them) as a separate crime. The judiciary committee passed the bill at the end of March.

While there is large support for the bill from legislators and violence prevention advocates, there is some hesitation among lawmakers, including Republican state senator Craig Fishbein. He questioned how dating services would be able to verify someone’s identity or stop them from transferring an account to someone else.