Culture
Tinder scraps release plans for 'Swipe Night' series due to coronavirus fears
The release would have gone official on March 14 but Tinder tells Variety COVID-19 poses health risks for users.
If you had plans to try Tinder's Swipe Night interactive adventure, which was supposed to go international on March 14, you'll have to put a pause on your heart-eyed dreams.
In an exclusive report by Variety, the company announced that it would scrap its international release for Swipe Night amid COVID-19 fears. It's not too surprising as Tinder has been fairly vocal about the deadly virus on its own platform. In a prompt to users earlier in March, the company advised, "Tinder is a great place to meet new people. While we want you to continue to have fun, protecting yourself from the coronavirus is more important." Now it's taking that caution to the next level.
It's not the right time — "We’ve decided not to launch the Swipe Night series around the world this weekend," a Tinder spokesperson told Variety. "We were excited to bring this innovation to our members outside of the United States, but given the series’ apocalyptic theme, and because we are sensitive to the current events our members are experiencing, we felt it would be difficult to launch it in the right spirit."
Apocalyptic indeed. As the World Health Organization notes, there are at least 100,000 global cases of COVID-19. A feature like Swipe Night — no matter how romantic and adventurous it sounds and regardless of how successful its previous domestic release was — carries heavy potential to put users' health at risk.
The decision to scrap Swipe Night for now is undoubtedly an integrity move by Tinder. While choose-your-own-adventure formats are pretty popular (just check Bandersnatch on Netflix), you should swipe right on choose-your-health in this case.
