Tinder, the social media app, delights in its ability to generate buzz. For, while it presents itself as a “dating” device, it also enables sexual hookups – which adds to both its popularity and its commercial appeal.
But now it has created a different type of controversy. This week Whitney Wolfe, former vice-president for marketing, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Justin Mateen, a fellow Tinder co-founder. This alleges that Mr Mateen publicly labelled Ms Wolfe a “whore”, and a “gold-digger”, and stripped her of her co-founder title claiming that, as “a young girl”, she “makes the company look like a joke”.
Executives at InterActiveCorp, Tinder’s parent company, have rejected Ms Wolfe’s accusations but Mr Mateen has been suspended. And the incident has created a cyber storm, following other lurid tales of Silicon Valley sexism and blogosphere debates about the “frat pack” culture of many start-ups.