Shareholder Sues Dating Apps Giant After Pulitzer Center-Supported Investigation Into Sex Abuse

An 18-month investigation into dating app conglomerate Match Group—in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network and nonprofit news outlet The Markup—has resulted in a shareholder lawsuit alleging the company allowed people accused of rape and sexual assault to remain on platforms like Tinder and Hinge.

The August 4 complaint cited multiple findings from the Dating Apps Reporting Project, including that Match Group has known the scale of harm on its platforms for years and kept record of sexual abusers who used its platforms, yet, did not take meaningful action to make it harder for those users to rejoin the platforms once banned. Instead, Match Group downplayed the issue and scaled down critical trust and safety teams. The reporting team also found that known abusers were able to easily rejoin platforms after being banned by using their own name, birthday, and profile photos.

Shareholder Ned Habedus alleges that Match Group’s inability to keep sexual abusers banned from apps has hurt user growth — and that the company published “misleading statements” to shareholders that downplayed its struggle to turn around a user decline. In the complaint, Habedus says app growth “faltered because users had grown tired of meeting abusers and predators on the platform.”

Habedus, who’s represented by Levi & Korsinsky LLP in Los Angeles, seeks damages and corporate change at Match Group.

Fortune, in a report on the lawsuit, says Match hasn’t responded to the magazine’s request for comment.