HONG KONG — The folks at Tinder are not happy about a story in Vanity Fair that explores dating in the digital age.
Like, really not happy.
The mobile dating app unleashed an epic rant on Twitter late Tuesday evening, issuing some 30 messages attacking Vanity Fair and the story’s author, Nancy Jo Sales.
The magazine’s story, which ran with the headline, “Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse,'” portrays Millennial daters in a less than flattering light, and explores how digital dating apps including Tinder are changing courtship and sex.
Tinder, for its part, has a few complaints: The tech firm claims Sales didn’t contact them for her story, and it wasn’t happy that she later tweeted a link to a survey that found 30% of its users are married.
Tinder made its complaints public in what can only be described as a Twitter meltdown.
“Hey @nancyjosales — that survey is incorrect. If you’re interested in having a factual conversation, we’re here,” Tinder said.
“We have lots of data. We surveyed 265,000 of our users. But it doesn’t seem like you’re interested in facts.”
“Next time reach out to us first @nancyjosales… that’s what journalists typically do.”
“If you want to try to tear us down with one-sided journalism, well, that’s your prerogative.”
The Vanity Fair story is “not going to dissuade us from building something that is changing the world,” Tinder concluded.
Tinder also suggested that Vanity Fair should have spoken to its “many users in China and North Korea” who are able to use the app to meet new people.
The North Korea claim, in particular, is suspect, since the Internet is tightly controlled by the ruling regime, and access is typically reserved for government officials, a few foreign ambassadors and outside assistance groups. There are only 1,024 known IP addresses in the entire country.
Asked for an explanation, a Tinder spokeswoman said: “We have users in all 196 countries, including China and North Korea. We cannot disclose additional information on our user base there.”
Sales, the Vanity Fair writer, responded to the tirade by retweeting a string of messages from supporters.
“My article isn’t even about @Tinder lol,” Sales tweeted.
