Two Sanders supporters back on Tinder after brief ban

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally at Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth, New Hampshire February 7, 2016. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

By Melissa Fares REUTERS - Two women banned from Tinder last week for aggressively promoting U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have been allowed back on the dating app and say they will resume telling prospective matches to "feel the Bern." Robyn Gedrich, 23, from New Jersey, and Haley Lent, 22, from Iowa, were locked out of Tinder after others on the "hook-up" app accused them of spamming them with hundreds of pro-Sanders messages. News of the ban went viral on social media. Both women said on Monday they were able to sign back into the platform. "I definitely plan to continue meeting new people and promoting Bernie Sanders via Tinder," Lent said in a Twitter message to Reuters. "I have been focusing on swiping slower to be able to have more in depth conversations today," Gedrich said by email. "Hopefully that will translate to more support for Bernie, rather than the dismissal I was receiving before." A spokeswoman for Tinder, which is part of Match Group Inc, owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, said the company would have no further comment. On Friday, a Tinder spokeswoman said: "We whole-heartedly support people sharing their political views on Tinder, but we don't allow spamming. So feel free to spread the Bern, just don't spam." "Feel the Bern" has become a popular rallying cry among Sanders supporters. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is locked in a tight race with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination for the November election. The two square off on Tuesday in the New Hampshire primary. (Reporting by Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Dan Burns and Peter Cooney)