On Tuesday night, Tinder's Twitter account sent a series of bizarre, defensive tweets in response to a critical Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales. The story, which discussed the app's role in modern dating, portrayed Tinder users as often shallow, sex-obsessed jerks.
Tinder's lengthy, rambling tweets in response included cringeworthy hashtags such as #GenerationTinder and a difficult-to-believe reference to "North Korean users." The whole rant, hundreds of words long, is pretty bad. Here's the entire thing. I think I speak for all of us when I say that the lesson here, as always, is never tweet.
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
-@VanityFair & @nancyjosales — we have lots of data. We surveyed 265,000 of our users. But it doesn’t seem like you’re interested in facts.
— 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
The Tinder Generation is real. Our users are creating it. But it’s not at all what you portray it to be.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Tinder users are on Tinder to meet people for all kinds of reasons. Sure, some of them — men and women — want to hook up.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Just like in real life. And in the many years that existed before Tinder.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
But we know from our own survey data that it’s actually a minority of Tinder users.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Our data tells us that the vast majority of Tinder users are looking for meaningful connections.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
We have tons and tons of emails from people that have all kinds of amazing experiences on Tinder.
— 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 the female journalist in Pakistan who wrote just yesterday about using Tinder to find a relationship where being gay is illegal.
— 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
Talk to the many Tinder couples — gay and straight — that have gotten married after meeting on Tinder.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Or talk to people that have made some of their best friends on Tinder.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
We love ALL of these #SwipedRight stories. Tinder is simply how people meet.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
The ability to meet people outside of your closed circle in this world is an immensely powerful thing.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
So we are going to keep focusing on bringing people together. That’s why we’re here. That is why all of us at Tinder work so hard.
— 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
You could have talked about how everyone on Tinder is authenticated through Facebook. And how we show users the friends they have in common.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Or you could have talked about how everyone on Tinder is on an equal playing field.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Users can’t message each other unless BOTH people are interested in one another.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
You could have talked about how users build a Tinder profile that expresses who they are.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Or how millions of Tinder users have connected their Instagram accounts, so potential matches can learn more about them.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
This all creates social accountability so that Tinder users treat each other well.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
Instead, your article took an incredibly biased view, which is disappointing.
— Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015
But it’s not going to dissuade us from building something that is changing the world. #GenerationTinder
— 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
