George Zimmerman has been kicked off Tinder after he was discovered using the service under a fake name.
Zimmerman, who was acquitted of murder after shooting and killing unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012, was using Tinder under the name Carter, according to Creative Loafing. The Tampa alt-weekly reports that "Carter" was "looking for carefree fun" and listed hiking and camping as his interests. The secret Tinder profile listed Zimmerman's occupation as a self-employed consultant. Tinder removed Zimmerman's profile for violating their community guidelines.
"At Tinder, we take our users’ safety very seriously and our team has removed this profile from our platform,” the spokesman told the Washington Post. “We utilize a network of industry-leading automated and manual moderation and review tools, systems and processes — and spend millions of dollars annually to prevent, monitor and remove bad actors who have violated our Community terms and guidelines.”
Zimmerman was removed from competing dating app Bumble late last year after users discovered and reported his profile. He was again caught using a fake profile.
“George Zimmerman was blocked and banned in December 2018 when we first discovered his profile and we have blocked and banned him again after we were informed by our users that he had created a new unverified profile,” a Bumble rep told the Orlando Sentinel.
Martin's death helped inspire the Black Lives Matter movement and created a national debate around Florida's Stand Your Ground law and similar statutes that remove gun owners' duty to retreat. Since being acquitted, Zimmerman has occasionally popped up in the news for running afoul of the law. He was sentenced to 12 months of probation last November after pleading no contest to a stalking charge.
