- Yoel Roth is leading Match Group’s initiative to curb inappropriate messages on dating apps.
- Match Group uses AI to flag abusive messages, promoting respectful dating interactions.
- Dating apps face user loss due to toxic behavior; Match Group focuses on safety improvements.
Former Head of Trust and Safety at Twitter, Yoel Roth, is now spearheading an initiative at Match Group, the parent company of Tinder and Hinge, to tackle a persistent issue driving young women away from the apps: inappropriate messages.
“For men especially, a big part of our safety approach is focused on driving behavioral change so that we can make dating experiences safer and more respectful,” Roth told the Financial Times.
Roth formerly led the team that set rules for what was allowed on Twitter but quit shortly after Elon Musk took over the platform in 2022. He joined Match in February 2024 as its Vice President of Trust and Safety, responsible for overseeing content moderation across its dating apps.
Despite other platforms, including Meta, moving to end fact-checking and other safety programs, Roth, who dealt with online harassment himself after speaking out against Twitter, said Match would be “doubling down on safety” instead.
“We’re not just doing it because we think it’s the right thing to do morally,” Roth told FT, “We’re doing it because we know it’s the right thing from a business perspective.”
Leveraging AI tools, Match can flag messages that could be perceived as abusive or overtly sexual, citing “a real need and opportunity to help people understand the norms and behaviors that go along with respectful and consensual dating,” Roth said.
So far, it has seen some success in nudging users toward more respectful interactions, with a fifth of users who receive prompts asking them to reconsider their message taking the advice, according to Match, as reported by FT.
A 2023 survey by Match Making Company, which is not affiliated with Match Group, showed that about 20% of women in the US reported regular exposure to toxic behavior on dating apps, compared to just 9% of men. One in three users has also reported leaving a dating app at some point over toxic behavior.
Due to dating app fatigue, women are also creating their own alternatives. A journalist with no previous event experience created the Bored Of Dating Apps events, where single people can meet in real life and form deeper connections, which quickly took off in both the UK and the US.
Between May 2023 and the end of 2024, more than half a million users left Tinder, a report from UK-based online behavior research group Ofcom said. Bumble and Hinge also reported losing 368,000 and 131,000 users, respectively, in the same period.
Match Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
