Tinder Honcho Suspended After Co-Founder Whitney Wolfe’s Sex Harassment Suit
Ever since Whitney Wolfe, one of the founders of the popular dating and hookup website Tinder, sued top brass for sexual harassment on Monday, the company seems more like a tinder box now.
Who’s in charge over there? Your drunk Uncle Pat?
Right now, it’s crowded by two fewer suits at the top. Not only is Wolfe, the former marketing vice president and co-founder, no longer on the letterhead; Tinder parent IAC swiftly suspended Tinder’s chief marketing officer, another co-founder named Justin Mateen, as the company began its own internal investigation into Wolfe’s allegations that Mateen regularly referred to her as “a whore,” among other allegedly Neanderthal-ish comments.
IAC released this statement to TechCrunch not even a day after Wolfe filed her lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, explaining its decision to suspend Mateen:
“Immediately upon receipt of the allegations contained in Ms. Wolfe’s complaint, Mr. Mateen was suspended pending an ongoing internal investigation. Through that process, it has become clear that Mr. Mateen sent private messages to Ms. Wolfe containing inappropriate content. We unequivocally condemn these messages, but believe that Ms. Wolfe’s allegations with respect to Tinder and its management are unfounded.”
Wolfe sued not just Mateen, but much of its upper echelon and Tinder itself. According to a copy of Wolfe’s complaint for damages, Mateen referred to Wolfe as a whore in front of Tinder CEO Sean Rad. He also allegedly besieged her with “sexist, racist and otherwise inappropriate comments, emails and texts messages.”
In her complaint, Wolfe places herself at the center of the company’s move toward Tinder and away from its Cardify brand. Nevertheless, she claims that Rad and Mateen removed her title of co-founder after this move and just before her being fired.
She claims that some correspondence reasoned the decision to lessen her face in the company because she was just a “girl” of 24.
And wouldn’t you know: Mateen continued to push a romantic liaison with Wolfe long after it had reportedly grown stale. She claims he even told her, back when their relationship fizzled at the end of 2013, to stay away from other men at Tinder or otherwise for at least a half a year.
Who would have thought? A bunch of fuss-budgets and pantywaists in charge of the hottest hook-up app on the market. Perhaps Tinder should now be called Tindeeeeeerrr.
According to a statement from Wolfe obtained by the Mirror: “This case is about being forced out of a company I helped build because I would no longer tolerate the gender discrimination and harassment. I had hoped this would be resolved confidentially, but after months of failed attempts, I have decided to pursue this suit.”
[Image courtesy of Tinder/Pinterest]
