The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South The commodification of intimacy on dating platforms means that the construction of user profiles becomes an activity in self-branding using limited avenues for user information like profile pictures, bio, and text messages.This scarce information often forms the basis for judging the desirability of potential matches. 46 The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South partners,74 who are vilified as a threat to the honour of Savarna communities.75 where Dalit and Muslim families live in ghettoised margins across urban cities.88 While a large percentage of young users have used dating platforms to explore romantic relationships, often in secrecy,76 there is limited research on how considerations around caste, class and religion shape their user behaviour. Although there is often an uncomfortable silence surrounding the question of swiping based on caste and religion reported across multiple studies in India,77 participants in some studies confided that they would ultimately have to marry according to their parents’ will.78, 79 Some dating platforms have also come under criticism for providing caste filtering.80 Even when dating platforms do not provide exclusive caste filtering, users may present their dominant caste identity or preferences in their profile or swipe based on markers that are often proxies for caste and class status in a highly unequal society.81 The commodification of intimacy on dating platforms means that the construction of user profiles becomes an activity in self-branding using limited avenues for user information like profile pictures, bio, and text messages.82 This scarce information often forms the basis for judging the desirability of potential matches. Dhanaraj notes how users may judge caste through markers like “surnames, localities, dialects, jobs of parents, religion, economic status, political and pop culture idols, food choices, ideology, complexion, and others.”83 In their study of Grindr in India and South Africa, Philip found that, while these platforms provide important sites for expressing sexual desire in societies where heteronormative patriarchy prevents such expression freely offline, they also result in the commodification of gay identities and a hierarchy between “classy gays” and “poor gays” through class, race and caste markers.84 Users both perform affluence, and judge desirability through markers like Western brands in clothing, and trendy locations in profile pictures.85 Even when Dalit and Bahujan users match with Savarnas on dating platforms, they often have to face casteist abuse and humiliation,89 and face heightened vulnerability to sexual harassment or physical violence. Many report being blocked or unmatched when dominant caste matches discover their identity.90 Dalit women, who are often stereotyped as angry, unfeminine, and promiscuous, face heightened safety risks on dating platforms.91 Paik has drawn parallels between the experiences of marginalisation faced by Black women in the US and Dalit women in India.92 She notes that both White and Brahminical systems protected White and upper caste women’s honour by restraining them from the public sphere, while sexual access to the bodies of black and lower caste women has been legitimised and institutionalised.93 Similarly, studies note how terms like “creeps” and “weirdos” are used for those who use lower-quality images, whose English is unrefined, and who lack aesthetics and premium branding.86 Kisana has also noted how fluency and command over the English language and access to Western pop culture are used to police caste boundaries in a society where such cultural capital often signifies intergenerational literacy and access to English medium schooling.87 The geolocation feature in many dating platforms further consolidates segregation in a country Platform Accountability in Online Dating While users may look at dating platforms as opportunities to exercise autonomy in romantic partnership through “modern ways”, they often still rely on prevalent social norms to make dating decisions.94 This user behaviour on platforms, which also feeds into algorithmic curation, together creates a sociotechnical system that upholds caste, class, and religious endogamy. Dattani highlights how “endogamous social intimacies” are co-constructed by user behaviour and the algorithmic infrastructure of the platform.95 Case Study: Privacy Practices of Aisle and Quack Quack41 Community Guidelines and Prohibition of caste-based discrimination and casteist hate speech. It is telling that both Aisle and Quack Quack, designed specifically for Indian audiences, do not explicitly prohibit castebased discrimination and casteist hate speech in their Community Guidelines. Aisle prohibits, among other things, “threatening, harassing, racially offensive, or illegal material, or any material that infringes or violates another party’s rights” Platform Accountability in Online Dating While users may look at dating platforms as opportunities to exercise autonomy in romantic partnership through “modern ways”, they often still rely on prevalent social norms to make dating decisions. 47