A few weeks after Trump supporters invaded the Capitol in Washington, D.C., law enforcement officials, including the FBI, are still looking for rioters who committed crimes such as theft of public property, illegal trespassing and more. The FBI has asked the public for help to find and convict the people who committed violent acts at Capitol Hill. They also provided a tip hotline and a website for the public to access and report any helpful information. 

With the FBI struggling to find all of the rioters who must be arrested, some of the public has taken to social media and even the dating app Bumble to try to help. Bumble is a popular dating app for all ages where one can set up their profile and showcase facts about themselves such as their zodiac sign, height, year in college and even their political affiliation, if they choose to do so. 

Women on Twitter shared statements about changing their Bumble accounts to the conservative filter to find possible rioters from Jan. 6. Attorney Allison Norris tweeted on Jan. 8, saying, “I know a friend of a friend who changed her preference on Bumble to Conservative. She’s matching with MAGA bros and they’re bragging and sending her pics and videos of them in the Capitol. She’s sending them to the FBI.” The tweet gained a lot of traction with over 28,000 likes. 

Norris’s tweet, among many others, sparked a fast-growing movement of women finding and talking to Trump supporters who were involved in the storming of the Capitol and ended up sending them valuable evidence that the FBI could use. However, a few days later, on Jan. 13, Bumble decided to temporarily remove the political filter from their app and released a statement saying they wanted “to prevent misuse” and they had “already removed any users that have been confirmed as participants in the attack of the US Capitol.” 

The women who had been finding and sending information to the FBI took notice of the removal and were questioning why Bumble was essentially protecting people who invaded the Capitol. Additionally, this uproar over the removal also raises the question of how important political affiliations are when dating, especially when they are part of one’s profile on dating apps. 

With college students making up a large part of the dating app demographic, this political preference dilemma has become a common concern. Many users, including college students, are quick to swipe left on people with opposing political views. Moreover, the removal of the political filter on Bumble is not only upsetting because Capitol rioters are now slipping through unscathed but also because it is a determining factor in most user’s screening process for potential partners. 

According to Pew Research Center, numbers from April 2020 already suggested that 71% of Democratic voters would likely not date some who voted for President Trump, while 47% of Republican voters would likely not date someone who voted for Hillary Clinton. This study illustrates the vast variance of opinion on the importance of political views, but nonetheless, it shows that politics is actively thought about by most when dating. 

Among the many types of dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and Christian Mingle, there is also an app called Righter, made entirely for American Christian conservatives to connect based off of their similar conservative political views. The app grabbed the attention of many as it seems to provide an interesting solution to the massive U.S. political polarization issue that has only been growing since the 2016 presidential election. While making conservatives who only wish to date fellow conservatives happy, it also solves the issue of liberals and others having to figure out a potential partner’s political views if they are not provided in profiles. 

Bumble has since reinstated the political filter feature on their app, but the question of the importance of political affiliation in the dating world still stands strong. With divisive polarization remaining, political affiliation features on dating apps will likely continue to be an essential and determinative factor when swiping left or right as it proves to be important to all in some capacity.