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• Dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge have reported increased use amid the coronavirus pandemic, while touting virtual dating alternatives for users instead of meeting up in person.
• Swaths of users are still encouraging matches to break quarantine to have sex and go on dates, despite social distancing guidelines and fines to comply with them.
• An illustrator on Instagram has been collecting screenshots of these situations, and told Business Insider that users will brand themselves as "badasses," dispute the effectiveness of isolating, and lash out in anger and hurl abusive language when they're rejected.
• Spokespeople for Grindr, Tinder and Bumble told Business Insider they've informed users to adhere to social-distancing guidelines, but did not respond to inquiries about actions they're taking against users in places where violating lockdown orders can be against the law.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As millions remain confined to their homes to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the desire for human contact and connection has risen dramatically and led some to search for ways to break those social distancing rules.

Popular dating apps — including Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge — have reported significant increases during the outbreak of swiping activity, matches between users, and messages exchanged. It's also led to the introduction of a breed of users who are interested in shirking lockdown orders, and are encouraging their matches to join them in doing the same.

Dating app users have shared stories across social media, and recently with Mashable, about messages they've received from matches who ask them to come over or want to hook up. Artist Samantha Rothenberg, who uses the handle @violetclair on Instagram, has been collecting these screenshots from followers, and told Business Insider she's received close to a thousand of such stories.

"Because of how common it is, I can honestly say that anyone who is on a dating app right now has dealt with this," Rothenberg told Business Insider. "People are horny, and a lot of people are putting that ahead of the risk and the danger."

For dating platforms whose end goal is inherently to bring its millions of users together in real life, the coronavirus outbreak has put them in a curious predicament. Dating apps are forced to balance a desire to keep people on their platform for the sake of business, with a moral responsibility to discourage users to engage in behavior with potential life-or-death implications.

Since the start of the outbreak, apps have rolled out in-app virtual dating options and touted ways users can go on virtual dates. However, the prevalence of users who are trying to meet up in person, as documented by Rothenberg and screenshots across social media, raise questions about whether these dating platforms are doing enough to stymie such behavior in the time of coronavirus.

Rothenberg has long collected screenshots of users' horror stories from dating app interactions, which she often will depict in illustrations she posts to her Instagram account. But ever since the pandemic led states to instill lockdown orders starting in March, nearly all of the screenshots she's received have had to do with coronavirus.

These lockdown-violating users fall into a few general categories, according to Rothenberg. There's the users who try to paint themselves as "badasses" for breaking the rules, though Rothenberg says they're more like "a--holes." There are the matches who propose meeting up and, after getting rejected, reverse course to say they're were joking or "testing" you, she says. You'll also encounter the anti-quarantine user, whose reasoning is based on claims about herd immunity and the ineffectiveness of social distancing measures.

The last group is made up of users who react to "no" with anger and verbal abuse, Rothenberg told Business Insider. Women told Mashable recently about encounters with men on dating apps who badgered and harassed them after they turned down in-person meetings, going to the point of gaslighting.

These types of users are what led Rothenberg to launch a petition on Change.org to hold dating apps responsible for enforcing social distancing guidelines during the pandemic. She's also been active about calling out dating apps in her Instagram Stories she posts with screenshots she receives.

"People are angry, they tell me, 'can you believe this, this is disgusting, this is wrong,'" Rothenberg said. "Because I have this platform, I feel I have a bit of a responsibility to put these [stories] out in the open and share, and bring some light into what's going on out there to people who may not know."

In late March, platforms sent out various messages and alerts to their users that Rothenberg documented on Instagram. A message to Bumble users from CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said: "Please don't meet your Bumble matches IRL for now." Hinge users were told to "stay safe and keep connected."

Tinder, arguably the most well-know dating app, also discouraged users to meet up in a platform-wide message sent March 26.

"We know there's a lot to stay to each other as we all do our best to stay healthy and prevent the spread of the coronavirus," the message from Tinder said. "We hope to be a place for connecting during this challenging time, but it's important to stress that now is not the time to meet IRL with your match."

Dating apps' responsibilities to pivot from IRL to TXT

As companies across industries adjust business to stay afloat, dating apps have transitioned to emphasize alternatives to in-person meetups. Although online dating success has long been measured by the amount of conversations that turn to real-life connections, platforms are forced to rethink their strategy as users continue turning to them en masse. A poll conducted by Hinge found that 70% of its users said they were open to going on dates on Zoom, FaceTime, and other video platforms.

Some dating brands have introduced new features amid the pandemic. Hinge launched "Date from Home" in April, where users can indicate to a match they're ready to move their conversation off-app. Plenty of Fish started rolling out a livestreaming feature in March to users in the U.S. to allow matches to go on short virtual dates. Tinder, relatively late to the game, announced this week it was launching a video chat feature by the end of June.

A spokesperson for Match Group — the parent company on Tinder, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, and other dating platforms — told Business Insider that it made updates to its products "to help users better navigate stay-from-home policies and date digitally via phone or video."

Other apps that already enabled video chat and voice call, like The League and Bumble, are pushing these features to their users more than ever. 

But while users on these dating apps are swiping and messaging at new highs, the transition to virtual-only hasn't been as seamless for those on Grindr, the most popular dating app for gay men. Steve, a 26-year-old living in Washington, D.C., told Business Insider that activity on Grindr is "completely dead." He said he doesn't check the app nearly as often any more, but messages he does get on the app are largely from people who say they want to meet up despite the quarantine.

Grindr, like other apps, has attempted to pivot to virtual dating: The platform recently introduced Circles, where groups of up to 20 users can join chats centered around certain topics and interests. However, Steve said he's seen these groups largely dissolve into "all d--k pics."

"I dont think Grindr has the ability to rebrand itself honestly at this point for something other than hookups," Steve said. "They tried to take the opportunity to rebrand itself as something else, and it just right away became sexual."

A Grindr spokesperson told Business Insider it had sent in-app notifications to all users asking them to "refrain from in-person meetings right now."Nonetheless, an app-wide message sent to users — and shared by users on Twitter — made no mention of asking users to social distance. 

For users across these dating apps who encourage the violating of social distancing guidelines, it's unclear how much responsibility platforms have to keep their users' indoors. In some states under lockdown, authorities have doled out fines and even arrested residents found failing to follow at-home guidelines.

Grindr, Bumble and Match Group — the parent company of Tinder, Hinge, Plenty of Fish and others — told Business Insider in statements they have encouraged users to adhere to coronavirus guidelines from the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control.

None of the companies responded to Business Insider's requests for comment about whether asking to violate social-distancing guidelines on the platforms is a breach of policy or would garner any ban or suspension on a user.

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Jeffery Klaehn: How did you first become interested in point and click adventure games?

Dave Gilbert: I played King’s Quest at a very impressionable age! I typed the word “jump” and I saw Graham actually jump, and I was so blown away that I’ve been playing them ever since.

JK: You founded Wadjet Eye Games in 2006 to sell your game, The Shivah, commercially, then moved to pursue game design on a full-time basis and released The Blackwell Legacy, the first in what would become a series of five games.  What are your thoughts on these games and on the market then compared to now?

Dave Gilbert: I am Blackwell Legacy’s biggest critic. It was the first game I wrote with the intention of selling commercially – The Shivah was originally freeware, so I don’t count it – and it shows every inch of my inexperience. The gameplay is clunky, the story is told in three giant infodumps, and the main characters weren’t very likable. But that said, I know with absolute certainty that it was the very best game I could have made with the experience, resources and time I had available. So I stand by it.

As for the market, everything is different. Back in 2006, indie games in general were a very new thing. Read the rest

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Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Ambassador Lee Feinstein, Founding Dean, School of Global & International Studies, Indiana University
Xenia Wickett, Project Director, US; Dean, The Queen Elizabeth II Academy, Chatham House
Paul Arkwright, Director, Multilateral Policy, Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Dr Patricia Lewis, Research Director, International Security Programme, Chatham House
Jonathan Prentice, Director, London Office & Senior Adviser for European Advocacy, International Crisis Group
Sir John Holmes, Director, The Ditchley Foundation

3 June 2013 , Volume 69, Number 3

He shares his thoughts on on America’s role in an increasingly affluent world, Russia’s decline and China’s own goals

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) B*51:01 and endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase 1 (ERAP1) are strongly genetically associated with Behcet's disease (BD). Previous studies have defined two subgroups of HLA-B*51 peptidome containing proline (Pro) or alanine (Ala) at position 2 (P2). Little is known about the unconventional non-Pro/Ala2 HLA-B*51-bound peptides. We aimed to study the features of this novel subpeptidome, and investigate its regulation by ERAP1. CRISPR-Cas9 was used to generate an HLA-ABC-triple knockout HeLa cell line (HeLa.ABC-KO), which was subsequently transduced to express HLA-B*51:01 (HeLa.ABC-KO.B51). ERAP1 was silenced using lentiviral shRNA. Peptides bound to HLA-B*51:01 were eluted and analyzed by mass spectrometry. The characteristics of non-Pro/Ala2, Pro2, and Ala2 peptides and their alteration by ERAP1 silencing were investigated. Effects of ERAP1 silencing on cell surface expression of HLA-B*51:01 were studied using flow cytometry. More than 20% of peptides eluted from HLA-B*51:01 lacked Pro or Ala at P2. This unconventional group of HLA-B*51:01-bound peptides was relatively enriched for 8-mers (with relatively fewer 9-mers) compared with the Pro2 and Ala2 subpeptidomes and had similar N-terminal and C-terminal residue usages to Ala2 peptides (with the exception of the less abundant leucine at position ). Knockdown of ERAP1 increased the percentage of non-Pro/Ala2 from 20% to ~40%, increased the percentage of longer (10-mer and 11-mer) peptides eluted from HLA-B*51:01 complexes, and abrogated the predominance of leucine at P1. Interestingly knockdown of ERAP1 altered the length and N-terminal residue usage of non-Ala2&Pro2 and Ala2 but not the Pro2 peptides. Finally, ERAP1 silencing regulated the expression levels of cell surface HLA-B*51 in a cell-type-dependent manner. In conclusion, we have used a novel methodology to identify an unconventional but surprisingly abundant non-Pro/Ala2 HLA-B*51:01 subpeptidome. It is increased by knockdown of ERAP1, a gene affecting the risk of developing BD. This has implications for theories of disease pathogenesis.

Research Event

Research Event

Research Event

Invitation Only Research Event

Fatty liver involves ectopic lipid accumulation and dysregulated hepatic oxidative metabolism, which can progress to a state of elevated inflammation and fibrosis referred to as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The factors that control progression from simple steatosis to NASH are not fully known. Here, we tested the hypothesis that dietary vitamin E (VitE) supplementation would prevent NASH progression and associated metabolic alterations induced by a Western diet (WD). Hyperphagic melanocortin-4 receptor-deficient (MC4R^–/–) mice were fed chow, chow+VitE, WD, or WD+VitE starting at 8 or 20 weeks of age. All groups exhibited extensive hepatic steatosis by the end of the study (28 weeks of age). WD feeding exacerbated liver disease severity without inducing proportional changes in liver triglycerides. Eight weeks of WD accelerated liver pyruvate cycling, and 20 weeks of WD extensively upregulated liver glucose and oxidative metabolism assessed by ²H/¹³C flux analysis. VitE supplementation failed to reduce the histological features of NASH. Rather, WD+VitE increased the abundance and saturation of liver ceramides and accelerated metabolic flux dysregulation compared with 8 weeks of WD alone. In summary, VitE did not limit NASH pathogenesis in genetically obese mice, but instead increased some indicators of metabolic dysfunction.

Trans. Moscow Math. Soc. 80 (2020), 113-122.
Abstract, references and article information

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