Tinder suspends account asking matches to register to vote for equal marriage
Tinder has suspended the account of an Australian woman who asked her matches to make sure they were registered to vote in the upcoming plebiscite on marriage equality.
The 25-year-old from Canberra, known only as Lizzie, wanted to do more than sharing Facebook statuses about supporting equal marriage in Australia
This comes in response to an increasingly nasty anti-equal marriage campaign.
Prompted by her housemate, Lizzie went on to Tinder and began to message all her matches to ask them if they were registered to vote.
Although Australia has compulsory voting, these laws will not apply to the plebiscite.
There are around half a million 18 to 39-year-olds who aren’t registered to vote, and campaigners worry this typically liberal youth vote may be crucial in passing marriage equality in Australia.
Explainer: What the hell is going on with same-sex marriage in Australia?
Speaking to Junkee, Lizzie described the response to her one-woman campaign.
“While it took a while to get through everyone, I was actually pretty surprised at the response.”
“I had a number of guys reply that they loved the idea and would send the message on, that they had already checked their details, or that they appreciated the reminder and the creative use of Tinder for a good cause.”
However, not every response was as positive.
Lizzie continued: “Some people didn’t really get that this wasn’t some sort of double entendre.”
A selection of the messages Lizzie received.
Staying true to most people’s experience of dating apps, some of the messages were outright rude.
After sending several messages across her matches, Lizzie was notified that her account had been suspended and was currently under review.
Lizzie called the suspension ‘pretty disappointing.’
She said she was disappointed because: “Not only because men seem to be allowed to send everybody they match with the same sexually suggestive gif or ‘sup’ while I can’t send an administrative reminder about human rights.”
“Also because I actually had a number of pretty cute progressive guys message me back.”
Tinder has recently taken steps to increase LGBT+ inclusivity, adding transgender inclusive gender options to the app.
Despite the suspension, Lizzie has no regrets about her crusade.
She said: “I think a few people actually did check and update their details as a result, so being banned, hopefully temporarily, is a small price to pay for progress I guess.”
PinkNews has reached out to Tinder for comment.
This is not the first time a dating app has been involved with politics, with Nick Clegg advertising through Grindr prior to the 2015 General Election and PinkNews’ own poll of Grindr prior to the British EU referendum.
