The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South Endnotes: 1. Benson Rajan, ‘Harassment and abuse of Indian women on dating apps: a narrative review of literature on technology-facilitated violence against women and dating app use’ (2025) 12 Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 55 <https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04286-6> accessed 11 October 2025; Sunaina Arya and Aakash Singh Rathore, ‘Introduction: Theorising Dalit Feminism’, Dalit feminist theory (Routledge India 2019). 2. See ‘Tinder Launches India Operations, Appoints Taru Kapoor as India Head’ The Times of India (6 January 2016). https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technews/tinder-launches-india-operations-appoints-taru-kapoor-as-india-head/ articleshow/50465904.cms> accessed 22 August 2025; Lata Jha, ‘Bumble Heats up India’s Dating Scene’ (mint, 6 December 2018) <https://www.livemint. com/Consumer/IKWgIRTlYX4QIPqnomWShI/BumbleheatsupIndiasdatingscene. html> accessed 22 August 2025. 3. According to Grand View Research, India’s dating industry generated $547.9 million in revenue in 2023 and is expected to grow to $1 billion by 2030. See Rwit Ghosh, ‘Where the Heart Is: India’s Dating Apps Find Love Outside Metros’ (mint, 7 August 2025) <https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/ indian-dating-apps-dating-apps-in-india-best-dating-apps-for-tier-2-citiesquackquack-dating-app-aisle-dating-app-11754288856407.html> accessed 26 August 2025; Uma Kannan, ‘Gen-z: Dating Apps Swipe Right’ (The New Indian Express, 14 May 2023) <https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2023/ May/13/gen-z-dating-apps-swipe-right-2574864.html> accessed 26 August 2025. 4. Ankita Deshkar, ‘Love, Lies, and Loss: How Scammers on Dating Apps Lure Lonely Hearts’ The Indian Express (2 May 2025) <https://indianexpress.com/ article/technology/tech-news-technology/love-lies-and-loss-how-scammerson-dating-apps-lure-lonely-hearts-9747168/> accessed 26 August 2025. 5. T. N. M. Staff, ‘Dalit Journalist Subjected to Horrific Harassment for Writing about Casteism in Dating Apps’ The News Minute (21 May 2024) <https://www. thenewsminute.com/news/dalit-journalist-subjected-to-horrific-harassmentfor-writing-about-casteism-in-dating-apps> accessed 26 August 2025. 6. Nandita Singh, Simrin Sirur, ‘Indian Women Are Getting Assaulted on Tinder Dates and No One Knows How to Stop It’ ThePrint (18 November 2018) <https:// theprint.in/feature/indian-women-are-getting-assaulted-on-tinder-dates-andno-one-knows-how-to-stop-it/151022/> accessed 26 August 2025. 7. Rajan (n 1). 8. Although many of the harms discussed in this essay may be experienced by users of other platforms, like peer-to-peer messaging, the focus of this essay is online dating platforms. 56 Platform Accountability in Online Dating 9. Dia Rekhi, ‘Desi Dating Apps Go All Out to Court Users in Small Cities The Economic Times’ ET Prime (11 February 2023) <https://economictimes. indiatimes.com/tech/technology/dating-apps-go-desi-woo-townsfolk/articleshow/97807114.cms?from=mdr> accessed 3 September 2025. 10. Aisle is a “high-intent dating app for Indians.” It was launched in 2014 (acquired by InfoEdge in 2022) and was positioned as a dating platform for longterm relationships leading to marriage. It positioned itself between matrimonial apps like shaadi.com and casual dating apps like Tinder. It has launched several vernacular dating platforms under its brand, including Arike, Anbe, Neetho and Neene. However, for the purpose of this essay, we focus exclusively on the flagship platform Aisle. According to a report, Aisle has over a million monthly active users (with 50% of the total users on its flagship platform Aisle), and the company claims an overall user base of 16 million. See Pooja Yadav, ‘The Info Edge Effect: How Dating App Aisle’s Revenue Soared 146% After Acquisition’ (Inc42, 10 April 2025) <https://inc42.com/startups/the-info-edge-effect-how-datingapp-aisles-revenue-soared-146-after-acquisition/> accessed 27 August 2025. 11. Quack Quack is a dating platform for singles in India that allows users to match anywhere in India (across cities), enables chatting without matching and offers the services of a matchmaker on a premium subscription. The platform has been gaining traction beyond metro cities and claims to have over 35 million active users. See DC Correspondent, ‘QuackQuack Hits 35 Million Users, Unveils Key Dating Trends’ Deccan Chronicle (18 January 2025) <https://www. deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/relationship/quackquack-reaches-35-million-users-revealing-key-trends-in-indias-dating-scene-1854903> accessed 27 August 2025; Ghosh (n 3). 12. Jen Caltrider, Misha Rykov and Zoë MacDonald, ‘Data-Hungry Dating Apps Are Worse Than Ever for Your Privacy’ (Mozilla Foundation, 23 April 2024) <https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/data-hungrydating-apps-are-worse-than-ever-for-your-privacy/> accessed 7 April 2025. 13. ibid. 14. ibid. 15. ibid. 16. ibid. 17. Bobby Allyn, ‘Study: Tinder, Grindr And Other Apps Share Sensitive Personal Data With Advertisers’ NPR (14 January 2020) <https://www.npr. org/2020/01/14/796427696/study-grindr-tindr-and-other-apps-share-sensitive-personal-data-with-advertisers> accessed 20 August 2025. 18. When a 2018 study by Norwegian nonprofit research group Sintef uncovered Grindr’s data sharing with two companies Apptimize and Localytics, the dating app’s privacy policy did not explicitly stipulate third-party data sharing. Instead, the privacy policy stated, “...if you choose to include information in your profile, Platform Accountability in Online Dating 57