Dating app Bumble publishes full-page ad in NY Times: ‘Believe Women’

Bumble, a female-focused dating app, published a full-page ad in The New York Times on Friday in support of victims of sexual assault, a day after Christine Blasey Ford testified against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO of Bumble, unveiled the full-page ad in Friday’s edition of The New York Times on Twitter. 

“Believe women,” the text reads on a sheet of yellow, Bumble’s signature color.

{mosads} Wolfe Herd also announced that the organization was making a $25,000 donation to the Rape, Assault and Incest National Network (RAINN) to help survivors of sexual violence.

We believe you. And we want to help. @Bumble is making a $25K donation to @RAINN today in honor of survivors of sexual violence. #BelieveWomen #BelieveSurvivors pic.twitter.com/Z1fYljghRQ

— Whitney Wolfe Herd (@WhitWolfeHerd) September 28, 2018

Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and alleged that Kavanaugh threw her on a bed and groped her while they were high school students at a 1980s summer party.

Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegations in separate testimony later in the hearing.

RAINN said on Thursday that it has received an “unprecedented” spike in users through the National Sexual Assault Hotline and its online chat service for survivors as the testimony progressed. 

There was an estimated jump of 147 percent above normal volume, the organization said. 

Bumble is an online dating, friend-finding and networking site that says it was “founded to challenge the antiquated rules of dating.”

The site mandates that female users make the first move in connecting with others, “shaking up outdated gender norms.”

It boasts more than 35 million users globally in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Latin America, according to Marie Claire magazine.

The website has made similar donations to social justice causes in the past.

Bumble donated $100,000 to the “March for Our Lives” anti-gun violence march organized earlier this year by survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting.

The site also banned profile photos with guns in them, excluding users who are in military or law enforcement uniforms in their photos.

“Online behavior can both mirror and predict how people treat each other in the real world,” the company said in March.

“As mass shootings continue to devastate communities across the country, it’s time to state unequivocally that gun violence is not in line with our values, nor do these weapons belong on Bumble.”