An online dating site, dating app, and website has accused Tinder of racism after a blind date reportedly went badly wrong for the man who says he met the “American icon” on the platform.
The date happened to take place in 2016, but the details of the incident have never been made public, so the details have only come to light recently.
“I am extremely disappointed by Tinder’s decision to cancel my date,” Tinder user Pauline Sibbett told the Independent.
I was looking for a date and was met on Tinder, who then invited me to her house for drinks.””
The idea that Tinder is a platform for the exclusion of people of colour is deeply offensive to me and others.
I was looking for a date and was met on Tinder, who then invited me to her house for drinks.”
Pauline, who is black, says Tinder’s “trending” features do not reflect its mission of providing a platform where users can find someone they want to be friends with.
The online dating website and dating app has apologised and promised to refund any money that is lost by people who lose dates due to the incident.
It says it will continue to work with black and ethnic minority users, and that it will be transparent about how it works with black people.
But it has yet to respond to questions from The Independent about why Tinder has failed to offer any transparency about how people of minority descent are being excluded from its platform.
Pauline’s story is not unique.
In 2017, the dating app Tinder’s chief operating officer, Joe Sullivan, apologised after he had to tell a black person in his company that he was a white man who had met someone of Asian descent on the app.
In April, Tinder announced that it would be opening a new section on its website called the Black and Asian communities, and had promised to be “a place for all black people”.
But in June, it announced a policy change which meant it would now exclude anyone of Asian background from its service.
