Thousands of users say they were unfairly banned from Hinge

Dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Grindr have made finding romance easier over the past decade. Half of Americans under 30 have used a dating app or website, according to the Pew Research Center, with one in five dabbling with Hinge, which launched in 2012. One in ten currently partnered couples met their partner or spouse on an app or website, according to Pew. 

But amid growth that places dating apps front and center in our lives, one of those apps, Hinge, faces a problem.

New analysis finds that the number of complaints lodged against the app through the Better Business Bureau, a consumer advocacy group, per million monthly active users is nearly four times that of Tinder, and eight or more times that of Bumble. And of those complaints, almost 98% are related to unjustified user bans from the app.

Now, a quick caveat: The analysis was put together by a user who was banned from Hinge in November. The user, who declined to give his real name but goes by the Reddit username “u/zffr,” says he was baffled by his ban, saying “I had hardly used the app in 2023.” The user says he tried to appeal the ban through Hinge’s built-in appeals process, but discovered a day later that the appeal had been denied, meaning he was banned for life.

“Hinge gave me no reason or explanation for the ban,” he says. “All they said was that I was in violation of their terms of service or community guidelines. Additionally they said that they could not provide any additional details to protect the privacy of their members.”

Hinge isn’t the only app dealing with this issue; complaints of ban-related overreach have also been lodged against Tinder and Bumble, with some users claiming the bans stem from reports of lackluster—not dangerous or harmful—dating behaviors. (It’s worth noting that for all the people who are incorrectly caught up in the content moderation dragnet on dating apps, many who use their accounts for predatory or abusive behaviors are quite rightly banned.)

u/zffr posted about the ban on Reddit, and quickly found that others had experienced a similar situation. He then began to analyze BBB reviews, and found that Hinge had far more complaints lodged against it than its competitors. For instance, looking at BBB data over the past three years, Hinge has had nearly 7,000 complaints, compared to just over 5,000 for Tinder, despite the latter having nearly four times the number of users. (Fast Company has independently verified u/zffr’s findings.) 

u/zffr felt compelled to speak up because of the importance of the platform to his life. One of u/zffr’s longest relationships started through Hinge, and he says the app helped him acclimate when he moved to a new city. He claims that being banned from Hinge has had a significant effect on his ability to date—and build a new life. (Hinge did not respond to a request for comment on this story.)

The issues that some users face appear to be rooted in misfiring content moderation. Whether honestly or maliciously, users and their interactions can be flagged to dating app operators, who then look at the messages to decide on what action to take—a job given to content moderators, or artificial intelligence tools that moderate content. Content moderation across dating apps works in similar ways to social media platforms, says Gareth Tyson, an assistant professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. And like social media platforms, dating apps’ content moderation has often been found to be lacking.

But besides the potential of misfiring algorithms or misunderstanding human moderators, Tyson suggests that Hinge’s user base may explain why the app has a higher proportion of complaints than its competitors in the dating app space. In its membership principles and expectations, Hinge points out that it’s an app where “daters are looking for a meaningful relationship”—which could be interpreted as a long-term, stable relationship with a soulmate.

And while Tinder’s own data suggests that 40% of users are looking for long-term relationships, its corresponding community guidelines suggest that people are actually looking for “meaningful connections,” not necessarily relationships. Tyson suggests that what might be seen as appropriate behavior on an app where users are seeking “meaningful connections”—which could be anything from a hookup to a long-term relationship, depending on your interpretation—may not be seen as appropriate on an app where “daters are looking for a meaningful relationship.”

Digging further, u/zffr believes that something has gone wrong with Hinge’s moderation efforts. Not only is its number of complaints as measured by monthly active users far higher than that of its competitors, but the rate at which Hinge has been reported to the BBB increased significantly in 2022. u/zffr has a theory behind that uptick. “This seems to suggest a significant and sudden change in their moderation,” he says. “What’s concerning is that this sudden increase in reports coincides with when Hinge outsourced their moderation to a firm in Guatemala.” Such concerns have been a pressing issue for many, as Wired has previously reported.

The outsourcing of content moderation to third-party companies is something that experts have recognized as causing issues. “I think one of the potential side effects of outsourcing is that perhaps quality drops a little bit,” Tyson says. That’s because content moderators are often asked to meet high-volume targets for low wages. “As a consequence,” he adds, “they perhaps don’t deliver as good or as reliable outcomes.”

Dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Grindr have made finding romance easier over the past decade. Half of Americans under 30 have used a dating app or website, according to the Pew Research Center, with one in five dabbling with Hinge, which launched in 2012. One in ten currently partnered couples met their partner or spouse on an app or website, according to Pew. 

But amid growth that places dating apps front and center in our lives, one of those apps, Hinge, faces a problem.

New analysis finds that the number of complaints lodged against the app through the Better Business Bureau, a consumer advocacy group, per million monthly active users is nearly four times that of Tinder, and eight or more times that of Bumble. And of those complaints, almost 98% are related to unjustified user bans from the app.

Now, a quick caveat: The analysis was put together by a user who was banned from Hinge in November. The user, who declined to give his real name but goes by the Reddit username “u/zffr,” says he was baffled by his ban, saying “I had hardly used the app in 2023.” The user says he tried to appeal the ban through Hinge’s built-in appeals process, but discovered a day later that the appeal had been denied, meaning he was banned for life.

“Hinge gave me no reason or explanation for the ban,” he says. “All they said was that I was in violation of their terms of service or community guidelines. Additionally they said that they could not provide any additional details to protect the privacy of their members.”

Hinge isn’t the only app dealing with this issue; complaints of ban-related overreach have also been lodged against Tinder and Bumble, with some users claiming the bans stem from reports of lackluster—not dangerous or harmful—dating behaviors. (It’s worth noting that for all the people who are incorrectly caught up in the content moderation dragnet on dating apps, many who use their accounts for predatory or abusive behaviors are quite rightly banned.)

u/zffr posted about the ban on Reddit, and quickly found that others had experienced a similar situation. He then began to analyze BBB reviews, and found that Hinge had far more complaints lodged against it than its competitors. For instance, looking at BBB data over the past three years, Hinge has had nearly 7,000 complaints, compared to just over 5,000 for Tinder, despite the latter having nearly four times the number of users. (Fast Company has independently verified u/zffr’s findings.) 

u/zffr felt compelled to speak up because of the importance of the platform to his life. One of u/zffr’s longest relationships started through Hinge, and he says the app helped him acclimate when he moved to a new city. He claims that being banned from Hinge has had a significant effect on his ability to date—and build a new life. (Hinge did not respond to a request for comment on this story.)

The issues that some users face appear to be rooted in misfiring content moderation. Whether honestly or maliciously, users and their interactions can be flagged to dating app operators, who then look at the messages to decide on what action to take—a job given to content moderators, or artificial intelligence tools that moderate content. Content moderation across dating apps works in similar ways to social media platforms, says Gareth Tyson, an assistant professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. And like social media platforms, dating apps’ content moderation has often been found to be lacking.

But besides the potential of misfiring algorithms or misunderstanding human moderators, Tyson suggests that Hinge’s user base may explain why the app has a higher proportion of complaints than its competitors in the dating app space. In its membership principles and expectations, Hinge points out that it’s an app where “daters are looking for a meaningful relationship”—which could be interpreted as a long-term, stable relationship with a soulmate.

And while Tinder’s own data suggests that 40% of users are looking for long-term relationships, its corresponding community guidelines suggest that people are actually looking for “meaningful connections,” not necessarily relationships. Tyson suggests that what might be seen as appropriate behavior on an app where users are seeking “meaningful connections”—which could be anything from a hookup to a long-term relationship, depending on your interpretation—may not be seen as appropriate on an app where “daters are looking for a meaningful relationship.”

Digging further, u/zffr believes that something has gone wrong with Hinge’s moderation efforts. Not only is its number of complaints as measured by monthly active users far higher than that of its competitors, but the rate at which Hinge has been reported to the BBB increased significantly in 2022. u/zffr has a theory behind that uptick. “This seems to suggest a significant and sudden change in their moderation,” he says. “What’s concerning is that this sudden increase in reports coincides with when Hinge outsourced their moderation to a firm in Guatemala.” Such concerns have been a pressing issue for many, as Wired has previously reported.

The outsourcing of content moderation to third-party companies is something that experts have recognized as causing issues. “I think one of the potential side effects of outsourcing is that perhaps quality drops a little bit,” Tyson says. That’s because content moderators are often asked to meet high-volume targets for low wages. “As a consequence,” he adds, “they perhaps don’t deliver as good or as reliable outcomes.”