Bumble removes political preference filter after Capitol riots honeypot scheme

Women in the US have apparently come up with a clever new tactic to help the FBI find people who stormed the US Capitol building last week.

Women in the US are apparently using dating apps to track down insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol building last week to report them to the FBI.

Their self-reported tactics have already prompted one dating app to change its policies.

Bumble has removed its political preference filter temporarily, but claims it’s searching for Capitol rioters on the app and reporting them to authorities.

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We have temporarily removed our politics filter in the U.S. to prevent misuse. Don't worry; it will be reinstated in the future. 💛

— Bumble (@bumble) January 14, 2021

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“How the f**k is reporting insurrectionists misuse, Bumble?” One Twitter user asked.

“Rest assured that we prohibit any content that promotes terrorism or racial hatred, and we’ve already removed any users that have been confirmed as participants in the attack of the US Capitol,” the company replied.

Bumble ordinarily allows people to give their political preferences (choosing between “conservative” and “liberal”, which can make it a confusing filter for Australian users given the name of our own dominant “conservative” party).

In the US, women have reported “friends of friends” using the filter to track down people who stormed the Capitol, or were at least willing to lie about it to try and impress them.

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I know a friend of a friend who changed her preference on Bumble to Conservative. She’s matching with MAGA bros and they’re bragging and sending her pics and videos of them in the Capitol. She’s sending them to the FBI.

— Allison #FreeThemALL Norris (@allisonnorris) January 8, 2021

This is the best possible use of a dating app. https://t.co/XwwczM9wu5

— JC (@conductress) January 14, 2021

One popular Twitter account — a random but handsome user known as Caucasian James — shared a screenshot with his 1.4 million followers of a profile from a “patriot” telling “anyone who was at the Capitol ‘riots’” that they “have her heart”.

“these leftists are driving me cray-cray”

— James (@CaucasianJames) January 15, 2021

Some followers were quick to agree that it “can’t be real” and pointed to the circulating reports of “honeypotting”.

Honeypotting for the win

— 𝕸𝖆𝖙𝖙 (@mattxcmh) January 15, 2021

Others suggested that it was indeed the case that it was part of a honeypot style trap, while others told them not to reveal that if it is the case.

SHH DONT EXPOSE LETTEM DO IT 🤫😏

— kyle (@notes911) January 15, 2021

A “honeypot” is an investigatory and espionage tactic that tries to lure the target into a romantic or sexual relationship that could be used to compromise them.

Jennifer Lawrence provided a broad overview of the concept through her character in the truly awful 2018 film Red Sparrow, which is otherwise a complete waste of your time with no real redeeming features (although it did pick Ms Lawrence up an award for “Actress Most in Need of a New Agent” from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists).

The tactic is popular in spy-fiction because it looks great on screen, but has also been used by real intelligence agencies around the world.

In recent years the same name has begun being used for a cybersecurity technique, where an isolated part of a computer network is spoofed to look like it contains important data that would attract attackers and keep them there long enough to analyse and block them.

The FBI has charged dozens of people and arrested more than 100 so far in relation to the Capitol building incident and is expecting to charge more.