Match Group first tech company to back anti-online child abuse bill

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Online dating company Match Group will tomorrow publicly support the EARN IT Act, a bipartisan Senate bill to combat online child sexual exploitation, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Match, the parent company of major dating platforms such as Tinder, is breaking with the internet industry's leading trade group, which worries the bill could open a wedge for law enforcement to crack into encrypted systems, threatening user privacy.

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Context: EARN IT would require tech platforms to comply with government-developed best practices to prevent online child sexual exploitation. If they don't, they would lose some of the liability protections they have under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decent Act.

Axios obtained an internal memo from Match Group CEO Shar Dubey, which explains the decision. It reads, in part:

"As the mom of a teenager, I am constantly thinking about my own daughter’s safety. And as the chief executive of a company that includes some of the world’s leading dating brands — Match, Tinder, OkCupid, and Hinge — I find myself often awake at night thinking about my daughter’s future, her digital footprint and the safety and privacy issues that come with this territory...

That is why Match Group has voluntarily chosen to make all of our platforms 18+. Beyond the age requirement, we vigilantly deploy a network of industry-leading automated and manual moderation and review tools, systems and processes designed to find and remove people from our app who should not be there. This includes both underage users and the bad actors that could prey on them...

We don’t casually lend our support to this legislation. We do it recognizing there is no cure-all to keeping the Internet safe, just as there is none for keeping the world safe. But, even still, we have to do every bit we can. These are complicated problems with many considerations. We must act together in a way that doesn’t hurt start-ups or stifle innovation and new technologies. We must balance concerns around privacy with concerns around safety -— which sometimes can be in conflict. But sensible and innovative solutions can go a long way."

Yes, but: Groups including the Internet Association are worried the best practices developed pursuant to the bill, should it become law, could include limiting the use of end-to-end encryption.

What's next: Match chief legal officer Jared Sine is the only tech company executive scheduled to testify tomorrow during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on EARN IT.

• Also testifying will be IA's deputy general counsel, a law professor from The Catholic University of America, and a vice president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Go deeper: Push to stem online child sex abuse sparks encryption fears