RCLIP is looking forward to hosting Professor Irina D. Manta from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, who will serve as a Visiting Scholar at Waseda University during June and July 2026. In her talk, Prof. Manta will present her forthcoming book which examines how dating platforms expose users to serious harms while evading legal accountability. Dating apps have fundamentally transformed how people meet romantic partners, but this transformation has created new vulnerabilities that legal systems have failed to address. In the United States, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act grants dating platforms near-total immunity from liability for harms that users suffer, even when companies possess information about dangerous users yet fail to act on it.
The book documents patterns across multiple harm categories: romance fraud (where scammers fabricate romantic relationships to steal money), sexual fraud (where perpetrators use deceptive identity claims), violent crime (assault, murder, stalking), public health threats (where apps accelerate the spread of sexually transmitted infections and other infectious diseases), and privacy violations (including data breaches and the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images). These harms reflect not merely individual bad actors but systematic failures in how platforms are designed, regulated, and held accountable.
The presentation will include comparative analysis of regulatory approaches, with particular attention to Tokyo Enmusubi, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's AI-powered matchmaking service. Unlike commercial platforms prioritizing engagement metrics, Tokyo Enmusubi requires government-issued ID verification and virtual interviews with staff before granting access. This model offers insights into alternative frameworks for balancing innovation with user safety, an increasingly urgent question as dating app violence continues worldwide.
Location: Waseda Campus Building 8, Room 219
Language: English (no translation)
Co-Host: Waseda University Institute of Comparative Law
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