MUMBAI, INDIA — Tinder announced changes to its existing Community Guidelines, outlining the good behaviors that lead to the best possible experience for everyone on the app. The updated Community Guidelines come as part of Tinder’s continuous efforts to make the app a fun and safe place to meet new people.
“The majority of Tinder’s members are 18-25, and Tinder is often their first dating experience. To guide these younger daters as they start their dating journey, Tinder is using this policy refresh to remind and educate members about healthy dating habits — both online and in real life,” explained Ehren Schlue, SVP of Member Strategy at Tinder.
Tinder’s Community Guidelines are built on the principles of authenticity, inclusivity, and respect. The updates to Tinder’s Community Guidelines will help keep Tinder a place for making meaningful connections. Members will begin receiving notifications of these updates in both the Tinder app and via email.
Authenticity
“Long Term Relationship” is the most selected Relationship Goal on Tinder (40% of Tinder members), signaling that daters on Tinder are serious about finding quality matches. Part of being a quality match is realness, and the following policies reinforce this to members:
- Make personal connections, not biz ones: Tinder is not a place to promote businesses to try making money. Members shouldn’t advertise, promote, or share social handles or links to gain followers, sell things, fundraise, or campaign. To help combat this, Tinder will remove social handles from public bios.
- Just be you: Tinder members are looking to meet real people for genuine connections. Members should never create fake personas or pretend to be someone else, even if it’s just for fun.
- Be honest: Tinder should never be used to spread false or misleading information. This includes filing false reports against other members. Members also shouldn’t use third-party apps to unlock features or game the app.
Respectfulness
Respect has always been at Tinder’s core, starting with mutual matching, which requires both members to express interest before chatting. Trust and safety features like “Are You Sure?” and “Does This Bother You” proactively intervene to help reduce the sending and receiving of messages that contain potentially harmful language, encouraging healthy and appropriate chats. Tinder is highlighting the following policies to remind members that respectfulness and coolness go hand in hand:
- Keep chats private: Conversations on Tinder are meant to be just that — conversations on Tinder. Unless they’ve been given consent, members should never post private chats they’ve had with matches.
- Respect boundaries: Comfort levels vary from person to person. To help members avoid oversharing, and decrease their risk of being removed from the app, Tinder is reminding members that they can use in-app features to be clear about their goals and relationship types, allowing them to start the conversation on the same page.
- Lead with kindness: Tinder members are looking for meaningful connections. Any acts or behavior that suggests, intends, or causes harm to another member — either on or offline; physically or digitally — have no place on Tinder and will be taken very seriously.
Inclusivity
Tinder has grown and evolved to reflect the diversity of its members, creating a safe and inclusive space for people to connect. Available in more than 190 countries, and in 45 different languages, Tinder has the most diverse membership of any other dating app and, by design, potential matches cannot be filtered by ethnicity. In 2017, Tinder introduced More Gender and Sexual Orientations. To remind members that they’re interacting with others from all walks of life, Tinder is highlighting the following policies:
- Communicate respectfully: Tinder is not a place for hatred, bigotry, or violence, especially when it’s caused by how another member identifies or looks. Members who encounter others who don’t meet their personal criteria can choose not to match or unmatch, and move on.
- One person, one account: Tinder supports all relationship types. Those in poly and open relationships should create separate accounts for each partner and use Tinder’s recently released Relationship Types profile feature to indicate if they’re looking for ethical non-monogamy, open relationships, or polyamory.
Tinder takes its Community Guidelines very seriously. Members should report anyone who causes them harm or discomfort, or is found to be violating any of these rules using the many ways available, including Long Press Reporting, which enables them to tap and hold an offensive message to initiate the reporting flow. Tinder also recognizes that people make mistakes and, in some cases, warnings will be issued, instead of an immediate removal from the app. Tinder will take appropriate action depending on the severity of the report and if violations continue.
To review Tinder’s fully updated Community Guidelines, click here.
