‘Tinder for Nazis’ and the woman who hacked it

In this episode, The Guardian explores the audacious actions of a hacker known as Martha Root, who successfully took down a neo-Nazi dating website called White Date. Disguised as a pink Power Ranger, Martha presented her work at the Chaos Communication Congress, detailing her infiltration of the dating app aimed at white supremacists.

Martha's journey into this underworld began when she was scraping data from right-wing networks in Germany. Upon discovering White Date, she gained access to a comprehensive database of its users, including their personal messages. To expose and disrupt the platform, she created AI bots that interacted with users, wasting their time and preventing them from engaging in racist activities.

Later, Martha leveraged her findings to investigate the website's founder, Christiane H., and with the help of journalism contacts, revealed the extent of the racist network behind the dating site. This led to a public expose, where Martha launched a new site displaying the profiles of users looking for romantic connections based on racist ideologies, along with a map of their locations. Her hacking performance was viral, resulting in positive feedback and inspiring efforts against online hate. Despite reaching out for comments, Christiane H. and her associates remained silent throughout the investigation.