I’m incredibly proud to be part of a company that prioritizes the safety of our users and is making continuous, consistent investments in technology to build industry-leading features that aim to make dating safer around the world. 

I've been dedicated to developing a robust approach for safe connections across our platforms, and to identifying areas where we can do more as a company in order to push the needle to improve safety across our communities, both online and in real life. Safety is integrated in every aspect of our work, and we will never stop investing in making our platforms more secure and raising the bar on new standards within our industry.

I have the deepest empathy for anyone who may have been subjected to bad acts by those they met on our apps. We devote an enormous amount of time, attention, and resources to our trust and safety programs. We will constantly work to improve and enhance our safety efforts and that work is never ending. There are always people who seek to take advantage of others in all walks of life, but we won’t stop fighting back as long as bad actors seek to misuse our platforms.

Building a Premier Trust & Safety Team: 

When I joined, our trust and safety team was capable but was not operating as effectively as it could and required a leader versed in navigating the complexities of safety both online and off. Over the last year and half, we’ve restructured this team so they can better respond to evolving challenges, and create more cross-collaboration across brands to help create more consistency in how we respond to user reports. We have also expanded safety features to additional platforms.

We have hired a new leader on trust and safety: Yoel Roth. Yoel will oversee Trust & Safety across the portfolio and collaborate extensively with safety teams involved in feature development, operations, and policy, drawing on a broad spectrum of safety expertise.

We invest $125 million annually in trust and safety teams, features and initiatives to help prevent and disrupt potential harm on and off our platforms. As we outlined in our Impact Report, we remain focused on several areas, including safety policy, features, social advocacy, law enforcement operations and outreach, and safety by design. 

Education on Financial Fraud:

Beginning in early 2023, Match Group led the effort to create a global public awareness campaign to educate daters and consumers on how to date safer and help stay protected against the different forms of online fraud. Users across Tinder, Hinge, Match, Plenty of Fish, Meetic, OkCupid, and OurTime receive periodic messages alerting them to tips and common behaviors to watch out for to identify potential scams. These messages have gone to millions of users across 15 different countries around the world on how to protect themselves against online scams.

This consumer media campaign resulted in creating more user awareness of these types of crimes and common behaviors of scammers to better protect themselves on our platforms and any online platform. Match Group worked with Tinder to sponsor the inaugural “World Romance Scam Awareness Day” on October 3. In collaboration with Mean Girls actor Jonathan Bennett we created a PSA to remind users how to avoid online financial scams and spot toxic behaviors. 

Earlier this year, Match Group partnered with Global Anti-Scam Organization for Safer Internet Day to encourage users to get verified. Together, we also shared a series of tips on how users can be safe on and off the platform.

Last summer, Match Group hosted meetings with law enforcement, fraud experts and industry partners to understand cross-platform threats, including pig butchering, and recognized an opportunity to better disrupt these crimes by bringing additional companies into the conversation. We will continue to work with these partners to combat these issues across the industry.

Enhancing and Expanding New Safety Features:

Match Group has built several safety features that have expanded across the portfolio, including  ‘Are You Sure?’ (AYS?) and photo verification with selfie video and in-app safety centers. 

Photo verification with selfie video tools are now available across our platforms and they help confirm the authenticity of users to help ensure their connection is the person in their profile by comparing profile photos with a selfie video submitted by the user. Tinder took it a step further this year with ID Verification by offering an additional step for users to help confirm the authenticity of profiles, focusing on date of birth and likeness. Tinder plans to make this feature available in the US, UK, Brazil, and Mexico this summer.  

Utilizing AI and machine learning tools, AYS? asks users to think twice before sending a message, providing real-time warnings to users about their messages. The feature’s automated tools detect potentially harmful language and proactively intervene to warn the sender that their message may be offensive, asking them to review and consider editing it before hitting send. The feature has been available since 2021 on Tinder, Plenty of Fish, and Meetic, and has expanded to Match, Stir, OurTime, BLK, Chispa, and Upward, with plans to introduce it on Hinge soon. To date, users have either edited or deleted more than 500 million messages after the feature flagged potentially harassing or problematic language. AYS? was designed using language reported by members in the past and has continued to evolve and assimilate behaviors over time to flag new words and phrases. It is now available in 18 languages around the world.

To support users when they are meeting IRL, Tinder, and Plenty of Fish launched a new safety feature called ‘Share My Date.’ This tool encourages users to share the who/when/where of their dates with trusted friends and family. Since its launch, over 75% of users on Plenty of Fish who used the feature said they believe it makes meeting in person safer.

Recently, Hinge launched a new feature Hidden Words, which gives daters more control of comments and helps to reduce unwanted interactions. Daters create a personalized list of words, phrases or emojis they don’t want to see in their inbound likes with comments.

We are really excited about these in-app safety tools  as we work across platforms to implement features based on what users  want and need when connecting with others on and off our platforms.  

The Future of Safety at Match Group:

I am proud of the work and the teams we have in place to combat potential harms on and off our platforms. However, Match Group will never rest and will always continue doing more to invest in and enhance our safety policies and practices so we can make dating safer for everyone. 

Safety will continue to be part of every aspect of our business, from building new features to leveraging expertises and best practices to develop cross-portfolio solutions and enhance overall user safety on all Match Group brands. We will never stop working to improve safety for users.