Lawrie has been involved in networked computing since the early 1980s, including the development and operation of public-access systems, investigations into unauthorised access across academic and commercial networks, and the management of early JANET-connected services. In later years, his work has focused on online abuse prevention, behavioural analysis, digital investigations, and the preservation of historic computing systems.
In 2025, Lawrie became a whistleblower regarding safety practices at Match Group, following his work in senior trust and safety roles at OkCupid and its parent company. His public disclosures formed part of a joint investigation by The Guardian and partner organisations, and were later discussed in broadcast media, where he said that after nearly a decade attempting to effect change from within the company, he decided to speak publicly in the hope of prompting improvements to user safety practices.[1][2]
In 1983, while a pupil at Hollins School in Accrington, he placed third in the UK National Schools Electronics Design Award competition (SEDAC) with a portable environmental data recorder. The project was later featured as the cover article of Everyday Electronics magazine.[4] The device used a ZX Spectrum as its data interface and represented his first published technical work.
During his school years, he was given access to an RML 380Z microcomputer, which he used extensively for programming and for exploring early text adventure games, particularly Colossal Cave Adventure.[5]
During the mid-1980s, Lawrie became involved in early networked computing through academic and public-access systems. In 1985 he co-developed a multi-user dungeon (MUD) with a fellow student on a PRIME 2250 system at Accrington and Rossendale College.[7] This work formed part of his early exploration of shared, interactive computing environments.
At around the same time, he was an early user of Prestel’s Micronet service, where he began to play and experiment with multi-user games including Shades.[8] These systems provided some of the earliest widely accessible networked interactive environments in the United Kingdom.
In parallel with his work on MUDs, Lawrie wrote an early computer-based dating match system in 1985, written in CIS COBOL and implemented on CP/M systems. The software was later repurposed as a matching system for dog breeding, a more practical application at the time.[9]
Multi-user systems and academic networks
Essex MUD, MIST and virtual worlds
Lawrie was involved in the operation and development of several early multi-user systems and virtual worlds, including Essex MUD and MIST. These systems formed part of a broader ecosystem of academic and hobbyist multi-user environments that predated the commercial Internet and supported experimentation with persistent shared virtual spaces.[10]
AberMUD distribution and university hosting
Lawrie was involved in the distribution and hosting of AberMUD, an early and widely used MUD codebase developed at Aberystwyth University. AberMUD was deployed at multiple universities and institutions, and Lawrie first made the code public, contributing to the spread of multi-user virtual environments across UK academic networks.[11]
TARDIS Project and remote systems administration
Lawrie was a member of the management team for the TARDIS project at the University of Edinburgh from 1987. The project investigated distributed public-access computing and human–computer interaction across networked systems, providing willing students with their first experience in systems administration.[12]
As part of this work, he co-authored an academic paper describing the coordination of remote system administration across a distributed public-access UNIX service. The paper is an early account of collaborative remote system administration on a public-access UNIX service. It predates widespread recognition of remote collaborative work and describes multiple administrators coordinating tasks from different locations across a distributed system.[13]
Lawrie also presented work arising from this research at the annual DECUS conference in the early 1990s.[14]
IRC and online community operations
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lawrie was involved in the operation and moderation of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) networks. This work included managing servers, handling abuse complaints, and addressing early forms of coordinated disruption and harassment in real-time online environments.[15]
Early cybersecurity and hacker investigations
From the late 1980s, Lawrie worked on investigations into unauthorised access across academic and commercial systems. He collaborated with security teams at Digital Equipment Corporation and assisted several UK universities in tracing network intrusions and abuse of shared computing resources.[16]
His work during this period coincided with the activities of several high-profile hackers, including Kevin Mitnick. Contemporary accounts note that Mitnick briefly held a legitimate account on HICOM, a public-access system managed by Lawrie, during the period covered by these investigations.[17]
Domain names and legal disputes
Lawrie was involved in early UK domain name disputes during the commercialisation of the Internet in the 1990s. These disputes arose at a time when formal policies governing domain name registration and trademark conflicts were still emerging.[18]
One of the most widely reported cases involved the retailer Harrods. The dispute, which arose in 1995, is regarded as one of the earliest domain name trademark conflicts to reach the courts, predating the introduction of formal domain name dispute mechanisms. It was notable for involving an individual registrant rather than a corporate entity, at a time when domain name law was still undeveloped.[19]
Early online businesses
recruitment.com
Lawrie was involved in the operation of recruitment.com, an early online recruitment service that predated the widespread commercial adoption of Internet-based job platforms. The service provided online listings and matching functionality during the early period of Internet commercialisation.[20]
nasty.com
Lawrie later operated the domain nasty.com, which functioned as a widely trafficked early affiliate and link-exchange site during the 1990s. The domain was sold in 2006 for an undisclosed amount. Subsequent resale figures were later reported by industry publications covering the domain name market. In 2010, Fusible reported that the domain re-sold for US$200,000, noting that the transaction resulted in a loss for the seller at the time.[21]
Security career
Following his early work in academic and public-access systems, Lawrie pursued a career in security and investigations, applying technical expertise to the analysis of abuse, intrusion, and misuse across networked environments. His work spanned commercial, academic, and non-profit contexts, and included advisory and investigative roles relating to online threats and misuse.[22]
Trolltamers and early anti-abuse work
Lawrie co-founded Trolltamers, a workers' co-operative focused on addressing online harassment, abuse, and coordinated disruption across digital platforms. The organisation provided research, advisory services, and support to individuals and organisations dealing with sustained online abuse and harassment campaigns.[23]
The work drew on Lawrie’s earlier experience managing online communities and investigating abuse across IRC, MUDs, and early Internet services.
According to the organisation’s website and later interviews, Trolltamers undertook advisory and moderation-related work for a range of organisations, including media and publishing outlets such as The Economist and the BBC. In later discussions, Lawrie described moderation and abuse-related challenges associated with large public-facing platforms and programmes, including BBC properties such as Doctor Who, BBC Earth and Top Gear.[24]
Work at Match Group and OkCupid, and subsequent whistleblowing
Lawrie worked at OkCupid and later its parent company Match Group in senior trust and safety roles. He was appointed to lead Moderation at OkCupid in 2003 and later became Head of Safety in 2007, making him the first individual within Match Group to hold a role explicitly focused on user safety and advocacy. In these roles, he was responsible for moderation policy, abuse response, and the handling of serious safety incidents, including murder, CSAM, sexual violence, fraud, and coordinated harmful behaviour.
As part of this work, Lawrie established and ran OkCupid’s internal incident response and investigations function. Unlike many peer companies at the time, OkCupid conducted in-house investigations into abuse and safety incidents rather than outsourcing these activities, reflecting Lawrie’s background as a professional investigator and the platform’s early emphasis on direct evidentiary review.
In February 2025, Lawrie went on the record as a whistleblower in a joint investigation led by The Guardian examining how Match Group handled reports of sexual assault and serious harm on its online dating platforms, including Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid.[25] The investigation reported that, despite internal policies intended to prevent users accused of serious violence from remaining active across multiple services, enforcement was inconsistent and safety decisions were often constrained by commercial considerations.
In interviews for the investigation, Lawrie described internal tensions between trust and safety teams and broader business priorities, and limitations in how reports of abuse and associated evidence were acted upon across Match Group’s platforms. The reporting documented cases in which users accused of rape or assault were able to continue using Match Group services after reports had been made.
Later in 2025, Lawrie appeared in broadcast media, including the BBC documentary Dating Apps: The Inside Story, in which he publicly criticised Match Group’s handling of user safety and described what he characterised as a prioritisation of growth and revenue over effective harm prevention.[26] His decision to speak publicly was described by commentators as unusual among senior trust and safety professionals in the online dating industry.
Later work and advocacy
After leaving Match Group, Lawrie shifted his professional focus towards training datasets and evaluation material relating to legal procedure, evidentiary reasoning, and case analysis for artificial intelligence systems.
In parallel, Lawrie has engaged in public advocacy relating to trust and safety work and its occupational impact. In a December 2025 BBC documentary, he spoke about the psychological toll of frontline moderation, escalation, and investigative roles, arguing that prolonged exposure to traumatic material made conditions such as complex post-traumatic stress disorder a predictable outcome rather than an exceptional risk. He criticised prevailing industry approaches to worker wellbeing and called for structural safeguards, including the ability for staff to withdraw from specific projects without penalty.
In the same documentary, Lawrie stated that towards the end of his time at Match Group, he believed he had remained in his role for too long, citing increased reliance on medication to manage sleep as an indicator of occupational harm. Since then, his public commentary has focused on advocating for more realistic safety practices within the trust and safety industry.
Lawrie has also spoken publicly about neurodiversity in trust and safety and content moderation roles, including attention-deficit and related conditions, and has advocated for workplace practices better suited to neurodivergent staff, whom he has argued are disproportionately represented in such work. He has also continued to participate in public discussions and panel events on online dating safety, including issues relating to personal safety, fraud and economic abuse. This has included contributions to events and briefings on romance scams and their financial and social impacts, such as work with the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment.[27]
Retro-computing collection and preservation
Lawrie maintains a substantial collection of historic computers, calculators and technical documentation, including DEC, ICL and early microcomputers.[28] The collection includes large quantities of original manuals and systems documentation, materials that are often less commonly preserved by private collectors.
When he emigrated from the United Kingdom to Canada, he donated some of his historic computing equipment to preservation efforts at Bletchley Park, as described in later interviews.[29] He has continued contributing materials to museums and preservation projects and has been involved in maintaining, emulating, and reconstructing historical software environments, including early networked systems such as MUDs running on emulated DEC-10 hardware, for research and historical study.[30]
Publications
Lawrie, Michael; Wilkinson, Lorna. “Environmental Data Recorder”. Everyday Electronics, December 1983.
Lawrie, Michael. Co-authored paper arising from the TARDIS project on distributed public-access systems and remote systems administration.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
