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Enhancing Safety in Online Dating

HUD, a leading dating app, needed a scalable solution for moderation as its user base grew. Learn how they partnered with ActiveFence to ensure a secure, trustworthy platform.

At a Glance HUD, a dating app that empowers users to connect on their own terms, faced challenges as its growing user base outpaced the capabilities of its existing moderation tools. To address the rising volume of reports and flagged content, HUD partnered with ActiveFence to optimize its moderation and user flagging processes. By prioritizing high-priority reports, HUD was able to scale confidently while ensuring a safe and trustworthy dating environment.

Company Info

PROFILE
HUD app empowers millions of global users to connect and date the way they want.
INDUSTRY
Dating

The Challenge

HUD had been using an internal admin system for its content moderation. Developed for function and without moderation best practices in mind, the internal system lacked the sophistication needed to prioritize urgent cases effectively, leaving their team overwhelmed by the sheer volume of reports. Having committed to a 24-hour turnaround to handle user reports, it was becoming harder for the team to tackle everything while maintaining SLAs. They needed a solution to help scale apace with their user growth.

“We weren’t fast enough in getting through thousands of reports a day. We needed help organizing and prioritizing high-priority reports to address those right away, and help us be more efficient,” says Amanda Kuhns, HUD’s Community Experience Manager.

They also wanted to improve their proactive efforts by catching unwanted activity before users are exposed to it. However, with in-house models that are limited to keyword-based detection, they were able to identify certain behaviors, but not underage users and scammers. They needed to gain wider coverage to protect their community.

“We had our own models built that would catch some stuff, but it wasn't very updated, and things were falling through the cracks. And as our goal is for HUD to be the most trusted dating app, we needed to find a way to make sure we could proactively protect our community better.”

Company Info

PROFILE
HUD app empowers millions of global users to connect and date the way they want.
INDUSTRY
Dating

The Solution

To create a safer environment for its users, HUD sought a partner who truly understood the dating industry's unique challenges.

“We looked into ActiveFence and saw that they were already partnering with other well-known dating apps. That gave us confidence — if they were helping those platforms, they clearly had the tools to help us, too.”

HUD recognized that users often hesitate to report harmful activity on dating platforms due to fear or familiarity with the person involved. To overcome this unique challenge, they looked for ways to stay ahead of risks and turned to ActiveFence’s proactive detection capabilities to catch issues independently of user reports. For example, they used ActiveFence’s underage detection, which analyzes photos and user behaviors to flag potential underage users, and enables moderators to act even when users hesitate to report.

“We want to protect our users, and now we can catch issues that users might be afraid to report themselves. This is something we couldn’t do before.” In addition, HUD used ActiveOS to streamline report handling, including prioritizing urgent cases to meet SLAs.

“ActiveFence helps us separate by risk factor. For example, we can see if the flagged individual has a high-risk score—like 96%—and address it immediately.”

The detailed, customizable interface also helps HUD streamline the moderation process. “When we go through our queues, there’s a whole information tab that shows everything we need to make a decision —usernames, flagged content, and more. This allows us to action reports right from there without spending time diving into profiles one by one.”

Additionally, the introduction of bulk actioning allowed the moderation team to manage flagged profiles far more efficiently.

“Now, we can select as many [profiles] as we want and action them all at once. That saves a lot of time compared to manually handling each one.”

The Impact

Through its partnership with ActiveFence, HUD is able to address reports quickly, ensuring that urgent cases receive immediate attention. By leveraging features like custom bulk actioning and detailed user-level views, HUD’s team has further saved valuable time. “Before, we spent hours clearing deleted or repeat profiles. Now, it’s much faster.”

The platform’s intuitive design also made it accessible to both team leads and moderators, fostering collaboration and efficiency.

“The organization and customization are fantastic. It’s very team-lead friendly and team-friendly overall. Features like drag-and-drop organization and customizable workflows make a huge difference.”

Beyond efficiency, the partnership aligns seamlessly with HUD’s safety goals. ActiveFence empowers HUD to enforce its safety guidelines in a way that supports, rather than hinders, the user experience.

“It’s increased our accuracy and efficiency without automating anything we don’t approve. We can enforce guidelines in a timely and organized manner without preventing users from enjoying the app.”

Most importantly, the partnership ensures that HUD stays true to its mission of putting the community first. “Our community should always come first. ActiveFence has helped us ensure that safety remains our top priority while making our operations more efficient and effective.”

“Our community should always come first. ActiveFence has helped us ensure that safety remains our top priority while making our operations more efficient and effective.”

Amanda Kuhns

Community Manager

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