Tinder came under fire last week when journalist Mary Jo Sales wrote a piece for Vanity Fair about how the dating app, and others like it, are affecting hookup culture.
Ever vigilant, the company woke up only hours ago to tell off Sales, who tweeted that according to GlobalWebIndex, 30 percent of all Tinder users are married.
Tinder then launched into a 30-tweet-long tirade about how Sales’ story was not only off the mark, but also about how its service helps people create “meaningful connections”.
Hey @nancyjosales — that survey is incorrect. If you're interested in having a factual conversation, we're here. https://t.co/SLWlTLvJuf
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
–@VanityFair Little known fact: sex was invented in 2012 when Tinder was launched.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Our actual data says that 1.7% of Tinder users are married — not 30% as the preposterous GlobalWebIndex article indicated.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
It's disappointing that @VanityFair thought that the tiny number of people you found for your article represent our entire global userbase ?
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Next time reach out to us first @nancyjosales… that’s what journalists typically do.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Tinder creates experiences. We create connections that otherwise never would have been made. 8 billion of them to date, in fact.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
It’s about meeting new people for all kinds of reasons. Travel, dating, relationships, friends and a shit ton of marriages.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Talk to our many users in China and North Korea who find a way to meet people on Tinder even though Facebook is banned.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
If you want to try to tear us down with one-sided journalism, well, that’s your prerogative.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
It’s clear from this social media meltdown that Tinder has trouble owning its identity as a hookup app. In a statement issued to Wired, the company said:
We have a passionate team that truly believes in Tinder. While reading a recent Vanity Fair article about today’s dating culture, we were saddened to see that the article didn’t touch upon the positive experiences that the majority of our users encounter daily.
Our intention was to highlight the many statistics and amazing stories that are sometimes left unpublished, and, in doing so, we overreacted.
Tinder is as much about true love as McDonald’s is about eating healthy.
Update 11:12 AM EST: Tinder issued a statement to BuzzFeed, stating it ‘overreacted’ to the Vanity Fair article.
.@tinder issues statement after sending Twitterstorm in response to @VanityFair article, says company "overreacted" pic.twitter.com/uOhI9vJd3l
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) August 12, 2015
➤ Tinder completely freaked out on Twitter [Wired]
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