The dating app Bumble has been known for setting its own standards for how people should behave on the internet.
From banning shirtless and underwear mirror selfies to photos of guns, the company is making it clear that there is no place for body shaming of any kind on its platform.
Bumble updated its terms and conditions to explicitly list “physical appearance” among other discriminatory language it does not tolerate.
The list also includes race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender identity.
The updated policy comes as Bumble looks to make its debut on Wall Street. The company filed paperwork back in January for an initial public offering.
According to the filing, the Bumble dating empire counted 42.1 million monthly active users as of the end of September 2020. In the blog post, the company said body shaming may entail projecting an opinion of what a “good body” is, in a biography on the platform, or critically commenting on someone’s body or health in a direct message to someone.
As other tech platforms have found, however, setting a new policy is one thing, but enforcing it can be more challenging.
Bumble said it uses automated safeguards to detect comments and images it prohibits, and that it will also rely on people reporting individuals for body shaming. Individuals will receive a warning and “repeated incidents or particularly harmful comments will result in being banned from the platform.”
The body shaming policy is just the latest way that the dating app has aimed to set its company apart as a female-friendly platform.