Bumble’s mission has always been to build a platform rooted in respect and kindness, and we’re taking another step to make our app safer for our community.
We’re doing this by updating our terms and conditions to explicitly ban unsolicited and derogatory comments made about someone’s appearance, body shape, size, or health. This includes language that can be deemed fat-phobic, ableist, racist, colorist, homophobic or transphobic.
Body shaming is not acceptable on or off of the Bumble app or the Bumble For Friends app. For those who may not know, body shaming means forcing your opinion of a ‘good body’ onto others. It can come in the form of sending a message to someone that’s critical of their body or health, or by stating in your Bumble bio that a certain kind of body is unacceptable or undesirable. Body shaming includes fat shaming, health shaming, criticizing skin or hair, thin shaming, unsolicited opinions, and mocking someone’s physical features.
Body shaming can do harm to the mental and even physical health of its recipients, so if you’re not sure if a message will come across as body shaming, a good rule of thumb is simply not to comment on another user’s body or health at all. Find something else about their profile to talk about. Or, if you’re not interested in someone, you can swipe left.
People who use body shaming language in their profile will receive a warning for their inappropriate behavior, and repeated incidents or particularly harmful comments will result in being banned from the platform. If body shaming happens to you on Bumble you can report it using tools within the app, which include Block & Report, Unmatch & Report, and Hide & Report.
Let’s work together to create a kinder and more accepting internet for everyone.