You can get banned on Bumble if you body shame anyone

Bumble has announced that it is banning body shaming on the app. The dating app is updating its terms and conditions to explicitly ban unsolicited and derogatory comments made about anyone’s appearance, body shape, size or health. This includes language that can be considered “fat-phobic”, racist, ableist, colorist, transphobic and homophobic.

This update in policy makes Bumble one of the first dating apps to explicitly moderate body shaming.

Bumble is going to use automated safeguards to detect comments and images that go against its guidelines and terms and conditions. These comments and images will then be sent to a human moderator for review before a decision is made. Bumble is also updating the guidelines for its content moderators to provide specific guidance around body shaming.

People who body shame in their profile or in the chats on the app will receive a warning for their inappropriate behaviour first. Repeated incidents or particularly harmful comments will lead to users getting banned from the platform.

The moderators are also equipped to share resources to help someone who has been reported understand and learn how to change their behaviour so as they don’t hurt others in the future.

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This new announcement follows a survey that Bumble conducted earlier this month to find out how body shaming has affected their lives. Of the 2700 single Indians who participated in the survey, 44% of the respondents said they had been made to feel insecure about their body in the past year. 

38% said that people are more likely to make unsolicited comments online as compared to 29% who do it in-person; 33% felt that people are prone to make unsolicited comments both online and in-person. Additionally, 75% of the respondents felt that they are more likely to be judged physically while dating as compared to other areas of their lives.

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Bumble has also made it easier for users to report body shaming within the app by using the block and report tool. Users are also encouraged to report and block anyone who makes them feel uncomfortable. Bumble is also reviewing its photo moderation policy as a part of the new changes.

In 2016 Bumble had banned shirtless bathroom selfies, swimsuit and bra photos taken indoors. In 2019, Bumble introduced Private Detector, a feature that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically detect and blur unsolicited nude images. The feature then alerts the recipient who can choose to view, delete, or report the image.