The folks at Tinder were not happy about a Vanity Fair story that explored dating in the digital age.
They responded with an epic rant on Twitter late Tuesday evening, which they now say was an overreaction.
“We were saddened to see that the article didn’t touch upon the positive experiences that the majority of our users encounter daily,” Tinder said in a statement. “Our intention was to highlight the many statistics and amazing stories that are sometimes left unpublished, and, in doing so, we overreacted.”
The magazine’s story, which ran with the headline, “Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse,'” portrayed Millennial daters in a less than flattering light, and discussed how digital dating apps including Tinder are changing courtship and sex.
Tinder attacked Vanity Fair and the story’s author Nancy Jo Sales in a series of some 30 tweets. The company claimed that Sales didn’t contact its staff for her piece, and it wasn’t happy that she tweeted a link to a survey that found 30% of Tinder users are married.
“Hey @nancyjosales — that survey is incorrect. If you’re interested in having a factual conversation, we’re here,” Tinder said.
“We have lots of data. We surveyed 265,000 of our users. But it doesn’t seem like you’re interested in facts.”
“Next time reach out to us first @nancyjosales… that’s what journalists typically do.”
“If you want to try to tear us down with one-sided journalism, well, that’s your prerogative.”
The Vanity Fair story is “not going to dissuade us from building something that is changing the world,” Tinder concluded.
Tinder also suggested that Vanity Fair should have spoken to its “many users in China and North Korea” who are able to use the app to meet new people.
The North Korea claim, in particular, is suspect, since the Internet is tightly controlled by the ruling regime, and access is typically reserved for government officials, a few foreign ambassadors and outside assistance groups. There are only 1,024 known IP addresses in the entire country.
Asked for an explanation, a Tinder spokeswoman said: “We have users in all 196 countries, including China and North Korea. We cannot disclose additional information on our user base there.”
Sales, the Vanity Fair writer, responded to the tirade by re-tweeting a string of messages from supporters.
“My article isn’t even about @Tinder lol,” Sales tweeted.