Social media platforms have long facilitated the detective work of online dating. Wondering whether the guy you've been chatting with on Bumble really looks like his profile picture? Just search for his Instagram profile! All that Tinder talk about his career sound too good to be true? Check LinkedIn!

In the wake of the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, users of dating apps have put those investigative skills to good use. They are adjusting the settings on their dating profiles to pick up members of the violent mob — and then pass their findings on to the FBI.

One day after the attack on the Capitol, Twitter user Alia Awadallah wrote that there had to be "DOZENS of men on DC dating apps right now who were clearly here for the insurrection attempt yesterday." Awadallah went on to ask whether that information would be "useful at all for law enforcement?" 

On the day of the attack, the FBI did indeed put out a call for "tips and digital media depicting rioting and violence in the US Capitol building and surrounding area in Washington, DC." In an effort to get crucial clues about perpetrators' identities, the FBI also shared a collection of pictures of people who participated in the violence for members of the public to comb through to see if they recognize anyone.For some savvy users of dating platforms, catfishing — creating a fake identity online to deceive others — to hunt down insurrectionists on the apps became the next logical step.

"I'm changing my preferences from 'liberal' to 'conservative' on my dating apps and reporting anyone who brags about storming to capitol to the FBI," Twitter user Kat Mean Jean wrote. 

Insurrectionist seeks same

Overheard DC, an Instagram account that collects snippets of conversations collected on the streets of Washington, has shared submissions from online daters who report matching with insurrectionists. The account covers the faces of the users in question and asked users to submit screenshots to the FBI, as well.

One of the Bumble profiles on display belongs to Sebastian, 28. His photo shows him on the steps of the Capitol with a crowd behind him. In his description, he wrote that he lived in Tampa, but that he "was in DC for a few days." The short biography ends, in all caps, with the latest catchphrase repeated by supporters of US President Donald Trump: "STOP THE STEAL."

Instagram user Zach Shaben submitted a chat he had with a woman named Sarah on the dating platform Hinge the week of the insurrection attempt at the Capitol. In reply to Shaben's question about how her week was going, Sarah wrote "Waiting on a gun! Can't wait for civil war. Down with the Democrats!" Shaben replied that he hoped she was joking; Sarah wrote that she was not: "They stole the election."

Twenty-two-year-old Bailey from South Carolina was in Washington from Monday through Thursday during the week of the Capitol riot and wrote on his Tinder profile that he was "looking for people to go with to the DC protest on 6 Jan." Overheard DC did not share who submitted the post, only the message that it came with: "Seeing as I'm going to try to catfish more conservatives next week, I'd prefer to remain anonymous."

'Unsung American hero'?

Though the practice of identifying participants in the storm on the Capitol has elicited glee in certain corners of the internet — Overheard DC called the contributor who asked to remain anonymous "an unsung American hero" — concerns about privacy, misidentification and misuse have arisen.

"It's one more example of how these tech companies can impact our lives without our feedback," Liz O'Sullivan, technology director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit group fighting discriminatory surveillance, told The Washington Post. "What if this was happening to Black Lives Matters protesters? ... At the end of the day, it's just so much power." 

When more and more people tweeted and posted about the catfishing in the days after the Capitol riots, Bumble temporarily disabled the political preference filter in the United States — though, according to the company, not just in response to the hunt for attackers.

In a statement released to news website Business Insider, Bumble reported that there had been an "uptick in users using the politics filter in a manner contrary to our terms and conditions, including users who have used our platform to spread insurrectionist content or who have attempted to organize and incite terrorism." Many Bumble users were incensed by the change and accused the company of shielding the rioters.

"It definitely tells me @bumble is protecting insurrectionists, which is a gross look," Twitter user Natasha Boyd wrote.  

The platform has since turned the feature back on. Like star signs and parental status, users have the option of picking a political preference for themselves and their potential dates. The choices: apolitical, moderate, liberal and conservative. 

Law enforcement cooperation

Bumble, Tinder and other apps have released statements stressing that they ban users who participate in criminal activities.

"We always encourage our community to block and report anyone who is acting against our guidelines, and we have already banned users who have used our platform to spread insurrectionist content or who have attempted to organize and incite terrorism," Bumble said in a statement released to The Washington Post. "As always, if someone has or is in the process of committing a potentially criminal act on our platform, we will take the appropriate steps with law enforcement."

Vidhya Murugesan, a spokesperson for the Match group, which owns apps like Tinder, Hinge and OKCupid, told The Washington Post that Match's platform have a zero-tolerance policy for insurrectionists: "We have, and will continue, to ban any users wanted by the FBI in connection with domestic terrorism from all of our brands, and we always cooperate with law enforcement in their investigations."