Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.This article is part of the Love for Sale series, which lifts the veil on dating apps and how they operate.
Down is one of scores of dating apps scrutinised as part of an investigation by this masthead that found increasing concerns from consumers and experts about the industry’s conduct towards the 3 million Australians who use dating apps, including the dominant Tinder, Hinge and Bumble apps. Match Group, Bumble and other smaller dating app companies this week handed the Albanese government a voluntary industry code they say will make dating safer.
“Any instance of violence, harassment or abuse is unacceptable to us, and we do not hesitate to remove perpetrators from our platform,” she said.And while bots are a problem on many apps today, sending messages to users who think they’re interacting with a real person, Machuret said Down’s manipulation was done manually.“We didn’t have bots. In fact, we were doing it manually. We had Filipino women messaging guys.”“We absolutely never employ any fake accounts ourselves.
Apple and Google declined to comment on Down’s case specifically. An Apple spokeswoman pointed out that the company removed nearly 152 million fraudulent ratings and reviews from its app store last year.The Down spokesman would not say how many Australian users the company has, although the company’s public relations manager said Australia had an “over 200 per cent increase in downloads since the start of 2024”.
“At the start, there were no premium packages,” Portolan said, “and there is a drive from the dating apps to push you towards paying for a premium package if you want your profile served to a greater group of people.” Seidler said that men’s rights activists on social media often “weaponise these experiences that young men have on dating apps, where they start to structure the experience and say, ‘Have you realised that you’re actually not getting a lot of responses from women? Have you realised that you’ve been ghosted a lot? Have you realised that only picking the alpha males.’ It really leans into male insecurity to drive a misogynistic, sexist narrative.