I'm saying this as a woman who gets plenty of likes on these apps, with my reasoning being:

  • Societal impact: Dating apps have become the standard platform for forming romantic relationships. This is the basis for family formation, which, of course, is a major concern for Western governments. We regulate things of far lesser societal impact with a much heavier hand.
  • Shady practices: Connecting to my previous point, it is outrageous that services of such importance are allowed to roam free in terms of the code and functions they implement. I can't tell you how many times an up-to-date app that I've used on a brand-new device has suddenly begun having malfunctions in delivering my messages right after I've gotten a great convo going. Even if this specific issue doesn't occur on purpose, it is undeniable that these apps do employ other tactics to keep their users addicted and without a mate that would take them off the platform.
  • Prevention of radicalization: If you really listen to the criticism around feminism, it really boils down to male dissatisfaction with dating. Women had careers and partied wild in 1980–2010, and few men took issue with this. It was the popularization of Tinder that really made men angry. The solution to male radicalization isn't to revoke women's rights or to tell men to just suck it up, but to fix the core issue. The current dating market doesn't serve women's interests either.

It's hard for me to say what regulations exactly would fix the issue. There'd need to be research on different functions and their effects to determine the best course of action. But the first step towards change is recognizing that there is a problem.