The Dating Apps Reporting Project is an 18-month investigation.
It went well enough that she accepted an invitation to go back to his apartment.
As she emerged from his bathroom, he handed her a tequila soda.
© Getty
After sipping the drink, the woman started to lose control.
She fell to the ground, and the man started to film her.
She continued vomiting for hours.
When she came to, she reported the assault to Hinge.
Hinge is one of more than a dozen dating apps owned by Match Group.
So why, on the night of Jan. 25, 2023, was Stephen Matthews still on the app?
Just four days before, Match Group had been alerted when another woman reported him for rape.
A little more than a week later, he was reported for rape again.
This time, the survivor went to the police.
None of these women knew that the company had known about his violent behavior for years.
He was first reported on Sept. 28, 2020.
By then, Match Groups safety policy was already in place.
By then, at least 15 women would eventually report that Matthews had raped or drugged them.
Nearly every one of them had met him on dating apps run by Match Group.
Attorneys for the women said much of that violence could have been prevented.
In 2022, a team of researchers at Brigham Young University published ananalysisof hundreds of sexual assaults in Utah.
They also found that perpetrators who use dating apps are more likely to target vulnerable people.
Almost 60 percent of sexual assault survivors self-reported a mental illness.
As of February 2025, the report has not been released.
Instead, as people continued to get hurt, the company dithered over what damning information should be hidden.
Do we only publish where we are required by law?
No online space is risk-free.
This is not the way we were meant to work and peoples lives are at risk.
Members of Congress have repeatedly requested data from Match Group on sexual harm.
The company has still not provided the data.
Our own testing on Match Group apps shows that as of February 2025, not much has changed.
The Dating Apps Reporting Project sent Match Group a four-page letter detailing our findings.
The company responded with a short statement.
It also defended the companys efforts to make platforms safe.
The company said it vigorously combats violence.
Our own testing found otherwise.
… Every person deserves safe and respectful experiences.
Breeden was a flashy hire.
What made her attractive to Match Group was her most recent job at Uber.
The report became a key metric of success for the company.
In hiring Breeden, Match Group hoped to replicate this success across its portfolio of apps.
For example, Matthews had no criminal record.
But Michael Lawrie called this safety theater.
Over a 30-year career in content moderation, Lawrie said, he saw many users like Stephen Matthews.
Youre dealing with one repeat offender.
Ive dealt with god knows how many repeat offenders, he said.
A yellow Post-it note on the side of Lawries computer listed out some of his responsibilities: Rape flags.
These days, Lawrie is trying to start an advocacy organization for content moderators and other front-line safety workers.
But, he said, hes done with dating apps.
I dont think theyre safe enough at the moment, he said.
Theyre gonna get worse.
…Im hoping dating sites vanish.
Lawrie said he was initially excited about Breedens hire.
Breeden was confronted with an existential problem.
reads a slide in a presentation drafted by her team in April 2021.
Lawrie hoped Breeden would improve safety at the company.
OkCupid already had those tools.
In interviews, multiple current and former employees described how those reports circulate through each of Match Groups apps.
The system is designed to ban anyone who uses that information.
It also grabs the original profiles IP addresses, photos, and birthdate.
A quick search yields scores of online forums with clear steps and suggestions for how to rejoin the apps.
Lawries team at OkCupid knew Sentinel could only do so much.
This is among the information the company kept from the public.
She CCd Breeden, acknowledging that the brands safety teams were not all on equal footing.
Lawrie used that report to protest.
Most professionals arent judged on how many cases they can hurry through in an hour, he wrote.
Breeden declined to comment for this story, citing a nondisclosure agreement.
He said much of their work was outsourced to contractors with little training and severe quotas.
He now cautions anyone using a dating app to understand that theyre not in the business of protecting users.
Youre on your own pretty much, he said.
As Lawrie was getting pushed out of Match Group, Matthews kept appearing on the companys apps.
To match with a Standout, users must send the person a rose.
They get one free rose a week, but they cost $3.99 a pop after that.
His classmate did not send Matthews a rose.
By this point, Matthews had already been reported for rape at least once to Hinge.
Court documents show that he had already allegedly sexually assaulted nine women and drugged 10.
Not only did the apps allow him back on, they featured Matthews profile.
As the COVID-19 pandemic dragged on, people got tired of forking money over for dating apps.
Match Group still made a hefty profit, but its growth flatlined.
Its stock cratered, losing nearly half its value between October 2021 and April 2022.
He just wants to make money.
Hes just there to increase profits, Lawrie said.
I know which one hes gonna pick.
Match Group declined to make Bernard Kim available for an interview.
Messages sent to Kim directly went unreturned.
Every time Match Group delivers on its promise, it also loses customers.
In February 2024, six dating app usersfiled what they hope will be certified as a class action lawsuit.
In over a year of quarterly investor calls, Kim only referenced safety efforts once.
Match Group fired its power hire in October 2022.
Layoffs hit her team over the next several months.
Lawrie said group chats of former Match Group employees have been gossipping about the cutbacks.
Over and over again, women furiously detailed negative experiences they or their friends had with Matthews.
Some women described him as sketchy.
Others called him terrible and not safe.
During the years Matthews was on their apps, Match Group hired and fired Breeden.
It made loud promises on sexual violence, announced initiatives and product lines, and promised a transparency report.
Match Groups partnership with Garbo, the background check company, also fell apart in the summer of 2023. does not seem to include increased transparency about safety.
Instead, in May 2023, Tinder released a female-focused package, a curated list of high-quality profiles.
It is unclear how Tinder determines these high-quality matches.
Hinges Standout feature, which is similar, had previously promoted Matthews.
Lawmakers in India and Australia are also demanding transparency.
This is exactly the situation Breeden and her team pondered three years ago.
What if publishing in one jurisdiction sparks a requirement in another?
As Match Group struggles to reverse its decline, its also aware that its reputation is in the spotlight.
I cannot heal, Judge Eric Johnson told the room filled with survivors and family members.
Match Group didnt make it easy for the Denver prosecutors to convict Matthews.
A search warrant was issued to Hinge in July 2023.
Matthews will likely never leave prison.
Match Group executives currently face no charges.
But the company knew about Matthews, and it knows about thousands of other abusive users.
Lawmakers around the world are starting to ask for answers from the most powerful force in modern dating.
In the U.S., weve just scratched the surface.
In most states, theres little that requires Match Group to share information with you or with Congress.
Match Group knows this and now so do you.
Stephanie Wolf contributed reporting.Statistical journalist Natasha Uzcategui-Liggett led The Markups testing of Match Group apps.
This article wasoriginally published on The Markupand was republished under theCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivativeslicense.
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