Dating apps are RACIST and should be redesigned without racial filters, study claims

Daily Mail
October 3, 2018

Dating apps that allow users to filter their searches by race – or rely on algorithms that pair up people of the same race – reinforce racial divisions and biases, according to a new paper by Cornell University researchers.

Researchers called for the apps to be redesigned, and for ‘racist’ algorithms should be reprogrammed.

Experts say that amid the huge rise in the usage of dating apps are meaning people are failing to meet diverse potential partners.

‘Serendipity is lost when people are able to filter other people out,’ said Jevan Hutson of Cornell, the paper’s lead author.

‘Dating platforms have the opportunity to disrupt particular social structures, but you lose those benefits when you have design features that allow you to remove people who are different than you.’