Before we all jump on the "he-said-she-said" bandwagon, keep in mind that IAC (Tinder's parent company) has confirmed that Mr. Mateen did send harassing messages to Ms. Wolfe:<p>"Through that process, it has become clear that Mr. Mateen sent private messages to Ms. Wolfe containing inappropriate content." <<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/06/30/tinder-sexual-harassment/11812153/>" rel="nofollow">http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/06/30/tinder-sexual-...</a><p>The rest of the allegations are unproven, but the allegation that Mr. Mateen harassed Ms. Wolfe is, for all intents and purposes, 100% factual. There's no reason to defend this guy.
<i>"Mr. Mateen told Ms. Wolfe that the reason she could no longer hold herself out as a co-founder was that she was a 24-year-old “girl” with little experience. Once again he said that holding her out as a co-founder “makes the company look like a joke” and “devalues the company.” Mr. Mateen tried to justify the situation by saying “Facebook and Snapchat don’t have girl founders, it just makes it look like Tinder was some accident.” Further, as Mr. Rad informed Ms. Wolfe, IAC would not let her be publicly recognized as a co-founder."</i><p>It's rare to see sexism in tech spelled out so blatantly. If the above is true, that's absolutely despicable.
Posts like these remind me how many socially maladjusted misogynists exist on this site just waiting for stuff like this so they can throw their 2c in.<p>It says right there that IAC confirmed he sent the messages. The rest of this honestly does not matter at all, it's just kindling on the fire. Those alone are enough to prove that he sexually harassed her. If you're honestly trying to argue that we 'don't know all that facts' and that 'we shouldn't jump to conclusions' then I feel bad for any women who have to interact with you because you're probably a fucking scumbag too.
That was just plain straight up sexual harasment, you can ask any HR person. It really doesn't matter what she did, once a person asks you to stop harassing them, they really really really should stop, legally speaking. I was going to get the Tinder app myself, but forget it. I can't support assholes like this who give guys and tech a bad name. I hope she, or someone else, mounts a marketing campaign asking females to delete their accounts from the app. Let it become another tired wasteland of a cockfest, and then they will know how important a female founder can actually be. p.s. -no, i'm not a female, i just get pissed because tech guys constantly have a bad name and i constantly need to defend the fact that we are not all assholes.
One not completely obvious lesson that can be drawn from this, has to do with preventing cases like this from being filed in the first place. If you look at the last exhibit in the complaint, even at the very end the CEO (Rad) could have negotiated what sounds like a very modest settlement if he had been willing to be a little understanding and flexible. Instead he went into some legalistic lock down mode and refused to consider even a token severance.<p>Now perhaps before signing anything Ms. Wolfe would have consulted a lawyer and so there would have been a lawsuit anyway. And as a disinterested observer, I would kind of hope so. But the pragmatic lesson for people who might be in a similar situation is that a little humility and understanding can go a long way. I'm reminded of the study finding that doctors who apologized for medical mistakes ended up being sued less often for medical malpractice.<p>Of course, by far the best thing is to avoid such situations altogether!
The complaint is here, fwiw: <a href="http://www.rezlaw.com/News-Events/06-30-14_Complaint_with_Exhibits-1.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.rezlaw.com/News-Events/06-30-14_Complaint_with_Ex...</a>
IDK how many of you have read the texts,
<a href="http://www.rezlaw.com/News-Events/06-30-14_Complaint_with_Exhibits-1.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.rezlaw.com/News-Events/06-30-14_Complaint_with_Ex...</a>
They are incredibly sad, The fact that individuals who wrote them can call themselves executives of any position is baffling,
From the side of Ms. Wolfe, i do have to hey texts are very calm, well the screens chosen do depict that, however the texts of Mateen and Sean, are bizarrely foul, if they are true as there is no doubt that the moment that they are not,
Ms Wolfe should shit on these fuck faces
Previous go round on HN: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7969301" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7969301</a>
Tinder is "casual sex: the app". Sexism is a very real and very serious problem in the IT world. But Tinder is not the most boringly neutral tech company you can find, especially in this particular sense.<p>It's good to keep the special-ness of this case in mind. For instance, sexism usually doesn't get <i>this</i> bad. On the other hand, an atmosphere that isn't as hostile as this can still be, well, bad.
> "We unequivocally condemn these messages," the spokesman said, "but believe that Ms. Wolfe’s allegations with respect to Tinder and its management are unfounded.”<p>Uh-huh.
Wow, if this is true, what a horrible person. All the efforts to get more women interested in tech, trampled. Hopefully, people will learn from this how to not do it and that still in 2014 misogynism is completely present and will get swept under the carpet.
Is this really an entire suite about name-calling? How old are we? Calling people names should be protected by free speech.<p>These sexual harassment cases do more to hurt women than help them IMHO. It reinforces the viewpoint that women are seen as a liability.
These private message things are appropriate until (possibly years after breaking up) it's convenient for one party to say otherwise.<p>This bullshit should be put to an end.
Sounds like a typical bad breakup to me, these two people just happen to work in high profile positions in the Tech world.<p>Girl finds new man, guy gets angry and lashes out by calling her a whore.(Unfounded) Nothing to see here folks!<p>Unless you're into this sort of drama...
Let's just keep in mind that these are merely <i>allegations</i>, and that no-one was convicted, and no investigation has completed so far. I hope the media and the courts don't ruin another person's life based on allegations that turn out to be false, as in the case of Julian Assange and the recent Oxford Union scandal.<p>Also, keep in mind that it is in Tinder's interest to put all blame to the employee that sent the allegedly inappropriate private messages. We have no idea what the true nature of their relationship was, how it evolved, and if it ended on a bad note.<p>I'm not saying that he is innocent, but he should be treated as such until he is proved guilty.
I don't want to comment on this particular story. These are terrible allegations and they deserve their day in court. There's also a drive-by, rubber-necking, gossip-mongering aspect to these stories. Hate to contribute to it.<p>I would like to comment on all the heat sexual discrimination cases are getting in the public eye lately. (I have no idea if the number of actual cases are increasing, decreasing, or staying the same). Big, public, messy scandals are no good for anybody, and they're not a new phenomenon.<p>We have various professions where lawsuits of a sexual nature can be especially damaging. A couple that come to mind right off the bat are politicians and religious leaders.<p>I've heard that in many cases, the threat of an unfounded lawsuit is so great, and it could cause so much harm, that folks are sticking with same-sex environments where there are always 3 or more people in a room together.<p>I wonder if we'll see such adaptations in the startup industry. It could be that the public outcry after so many of these things, to include more women, might actually drive out more highly segregated work environments. It bears watching.
He-said-she-said, bleh. And these things come to light after a breakup between the two of them. Seriously, who would trust what either of them say? It'll get settled in court no doubt, but let's not jump on the bandwagon here.<p>Edit: <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/sapna/tinder-sued-for-sexual-harassment" rel="nofollow">http://www.buzzfeed.com/sapna/tinder-sued-for-sexual-harassm...</a> - If this is real the guy is a real piece of shit. -This- is the type of guy who should be removed from his company. If the guy in Github was forced to leave this is probably a sure-thing.