A new investigation from The Markup claims the parent company of Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid and other dating apps turns a blind eye to allegedly abusive users on its platforms. The 18-month investigation found instances in which users who were repeatedly reported for drugging or assaulting their dates remained on the apps. One such case involves a Colorado-based cardiologist named Stephen Matthews. Over several years, multiple women on Match's platforms reported him for drugging or raping them. Despite these reports, his Tinder profile was at one point given Standout status, reserved for popular profiles and often requiring in-app currency to interact with.

Imagine a new racing video game. Whatever you've pictured, What the Car? is not it. In a world where racing games pride themselves on the ever-increasing detail and authenticity of their driving experiences, pushing the speedometer towards realism with cutting-edge game engines as well as perfectly simulated motor ones, this is the opposite. This car is literally running around on foot. Described as "an absurdly silly adventure full of racing, laughs, and surprises," What the Car? has you playing as a car with legs, sprinting and climbing through obstacles each more daft than the last, to get to the finish line.

The background-checking tool used by Match Group to offer a safety feature for Tinder users is shutting down. The non-profit and female-founded Garbo, which the dating app conglomerate has partnered with since 2019, will shut down its consumer tool at the end of August. "Most tech companies just see trust and safety as good PR," Kathryn Kosmides, Garbo's founder and CEO, told The Wall Street Journal, which published a report on the severed partnership. "I'd rather Garbo shift focus to our other efforts than allow the vision of Garbo to be compromised and relegated to a piece of big corporations' marketing goals." A Match Group spokesperson supplied a statement to Engadget.

As of this week, Tinder users will be able to run criminal background checks on their potential dates. The feature – launched in partnership with Garbo, a background check provider that aims to make public safety information more accessible – is intended to make Tinder users feel safer. But experts who specialize in sexual violence and surveillance have said the move is misguided, and risks amplifying the biases inherent in the criminal justice system. Background checks are blunt tools that gloss over some fundamental nuances, including that most people accused of sexual violence do not interact with the criminal justice system, said Albert Fox Cahn, the founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. Only 310 of 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police, according to the anti-sexual violence organization Rainn.

When Jerrel Gantt was released from prison after three years, he was handed a pamphlet about healthcare and nothing else. He began searching for employment, a deep source of anxiety for him, and secured housing through a ministry in New York City. He later enrolled in school part-time. As he settled into life outside of prison and developed a support system, Gantt began going on dates with people he met on apps like Tinder. The process has not been without challenges – revealing that he is formerly incarcerated usually comes up early in the dating process for Gantt.

Online dating app Tinder is not only matching up potential suiters, but it is making it easier for them to meet up by giving them free COVID tests. The matchmaking site has teamed up with Everlywell to give away 1,000 of the company's COVID-19 Test Home Collection Kits for free to potential matches to check their virus status before they venture out on a date. Love matches can request a test for themselves and their match before their date, starting on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, where they will receive a code to claim their mail-in COVID test from the Tinder app. According to Tinder, its members are itching to go on a date as the feature hit an all-time high in U.S. bios in February as daters looked to meet up with their matches. As of October 2020, more than 40% of Tinder members under the age of 30 had not yet met their match in person due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company said.

Tinder has skyrocketed in popularity amid the coronavirus pandemic, allowing users who are shut in their homes to still have a chance to meet a romantic partner. However, the app has also come under fire for its user base – it has received numerous reports of abuse. A US report from last year found women under 35 using Tinder were twice as likely as their male counterparts to be called offensive names, or physically threatened, by someone they met on the dating app. Tracey Breeden, Head of Safety and Social Advocacy for Match Group, said: 'For far too long women and marginalized groups in all corners of the world have faced many barriers to resources and safety.'

When you think of sports video games you might think of Fifa or Madden, which obsessively mimic their real-life equivalents – or Track & Field, which valiantly if unsuccessfully tries to. But not all developers play by the rules. From impossible athletics to fantasy baseball players with 27 fingers, these are some of the weirdest virtual takes on sport around. Bennett Foddy loves the Olympics, especially the 50km race walk "for its heartbreaking reversals in fortune". He has also always loved physics-based video games, like the arcade game Gravitar (1982) and Ski Stunt Simulator (2001). So it was natural that he would want to make an athletics game with proper dynamic physics.