Tinder Co-Founder's Suit: I Was Called a 'Whore'

A tech startup that's all about dating is now embroiled in a lawsuit and scandal sure to remind you what you hate about dating. Tinder co-founder and former marketing VP Whitney Wolfe is suing the dating-app company for sexual harassment, based in large part on the behavior of fellow co-founder Justin Mateen—who is also her ex-boyfriend. In a suit filed yesterday, Wolfe alleges that Mateen called her a "whore" in front of CEO Sean Rad and took away her co-founder title because having "a 24-year-old girl" as co-founder made the company "seem like a joke," USA Today reports.

Wolfe says she was subjected to a "misogynist" and "frat-like" atmosphere, and that when she complained she was forced out of the company, according to the New York Daily News. Since the story broke, the company has suspended Mateen, because, as TechCrunch points out, the company "can't really dismiss the inappropriateness of the texts from Mateen that are included as evidence in the lawsuit." In screenshots included in the complaint, Mateen appears to berate Wolfe for breaking his heart, call her a "liberal lying desperate slut," complain that she associates with "Muslim pigs," and warn that if she threatens him he "will bark back like a psycho." While parent company IAC "unequivocally condemn these messages," it notes it believes "Ms. Wolfe's allegations with respect to Tinder and its management are unfounded." (More Tinder stories.)