- The dating app
Bumble has temporarily removed its political identification filter to prevent "misuse." - The move came after women tweeted about using the filter to find conservatives who took part in the Capitol breach, and passing on evidence to law enforcement.
- Users started to notice that the political filter had been removed on Thursday, and criticized Bumble for appearing to protect the insurrectionists.
- Bumble added that it had removed the accounts of people who had been "confirmed as participants in the attack of the US Capitol."
The dating app Bumble temporarily suspended its political filter in the US after multiple people tweeted about using it to find conservatives who took part in last week's Capitol insurrection and turn them into law-enforcement authorities.
On January 7, a day after the pro-Trump riot, Alia Awadallah, a woman in Washington, DC, tweeted: "There are DOZENS of men on DC dating apps right now who were clearly here for the insurrection attempt."
"Some say it directly, others are obvious from MAGA clothing, location tags, etc. Is that info useful at all for law enforcement?"
When someone later sent her the FBI tips website, Awadallah said she had submitted some evidence.
—Allison #FreeThemALL Norris (@allisonnorris) January 8, 2021
Since the attack on the Capitol, the FBI has been asking the public for "tips and digital media depicting rioting and violence" in and around the complex on January 6. As of this Wednesday, just over 100 people have been arrested.
Another Twitter user, Allison Norris, responded to Awadallah saying that she knew of someone who had changed her Bumble profile to conservative in order to find Republicans who took part in the storming of the Capitol.
"She's matching with the MAGA bros and they're bragging and sending her pics and videos of them in the Capitol. She's sending the to the FBI," Norris said.
Norris' tweet was liked more than 27,000 times as of Friday morning, with John Sipher, a former CIA spy, commenting: "Well played."
Another person responded: "Get in girls. We're going hunting."
On Thursday, Bumble users started to notice that the political identification filter had been removed from the dating app.
The company responded by saying that it had been temporarily taken away "to prevent misuse," adding that it had "already removed any users that have been confirmed as participants in the attack of the US Capitol."
—bumble (@BumbleSupport) January 14, 2021
After The Independent reported on Bumble's move, Norris shared a link to the article, saying: "It looks like I broke Bumble?"
She also criticized the company, saying: "I guess Bumble was already broken if it's so quick to protect terrorists," referring to the insurrectionists - a sentiment shared by some other Twitter users.
—Allison #FreeThemALL Norris (@allisonnorris) January 14, 2021
Insider has contacted Bumble for comment.
In a statement to Mashable, Bumble explained that after the breach, it "ensured that our hate speech scanning and protocols addressed the attack on the US Capitol and began removing any insurrection-related content from our platform."
"If we see anything that would suggest someone has or is in the process of committing a potentially criminal act we will take appropriate steps with law enforcement," the company added.
The dating app said it was going to continue monitoring activity through President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration next week, which the FBI has warned may be the target of further armed protests.