Bumble Bans Photos of Guns Across the Platform
Bumble announced yesterday that it would no longer allow pictures of guns on the platform. CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told The New York Times that the app will now handle photos of guns the way it handles photos of nudity or hate speech. Roughly 5,000 moderators will look at new and existing profiles to remove any photos of guns or other dangerous weapons, like knives.
“We just want to create a community where people feel at ease, where they do not feel threatened, and we just don’t see guns fitting into that equation,” Herd said.
Since the Parkland shooting on Valentine's Day that left 17 people dead, the national conversation about gun violence has been reinvigorated. The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have become activists in their own right, and President Trump has held multiple meetings about gun control since the shooting.
The app, which has 30 million users, will also donate $100,000 to March For Our Lives, the organization started by Parkland survivors responsible for planning the nationwide marches on March 24.
Members of the military are exempt from the ban, and the ban will also not apply to user's Instagram feeds, which can be integrated into the app. Herd said that she realizes most Bumble users who have a photo of a gun in their profile are hobbyists, not violent people, but those users can appeal to keep their photos if they choose. Herd eventually wants to eliminate written mentions of guns from user profiles, as well.
“This is not super black and white,” she told The Times. “It’s a very tricky battle we’ve chosen to taken on, but I’d rather pursue this than just ignore it.”
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