Tinder Ghosts Russia

For its third annual Impact Report, Match Group, which owns dating websites Tinder and Hinge, announced that it was leaving the Russian market.

The company, which has continued to do business in Russia for over a year, indicated: “We are committed to protecting human rights. Our brands are taking steps to restrict access to their services in Russia and will complete their withdrawal from the Russian market by June 30, 2023.”

In March, reports surfaced that Tinder was being used by Westerners with subscriptions who sought to plead with Russians to not support the war.

Alternatively, Ukrainian women complained that their accounts had been bombarded by likes and love interests since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

Other news reports in April indicated that Tinder had been examined by German counterintelligence officials over concerns that Russian intelligence could be using the app to ensnare German soldiers and politicians.

Tinder, which came into existence in 2012, has been referred to as a “hook-up app,” facilitating short-term sexual relationships between its users, as opposed to a long-term dating app. However, a 2021 study found that “80 percent of users never had sex with anyone they met on Tinder. Of those who did hookup, 65 percent reported one partner, 15 percent had two partners, and 20 percent had more than two.”

Other Topics of Interest

ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 25, 2024

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

A 2022 Netflix series, Tinder Swindler, detailed how one conman had used Tinder to meet and defraud women of money.