Thousands and thousands of ladies within the US have downloaded a “relationship recommendation” app that claims it catches catfish, checks for hidden marriages and retains customers protected from males on-line.
In accordance with App Retailer tracker SensorTower.com, Tea Relationship Recommendation has grow to be the preferred free app within the US, and is the primary way of life obtain.
It additionally claimed earlier this week to have just lately gained near 1,000,000 new customers, and stated on Instagram it has greater than 4 million girls “in our neighborhood”.
Nonetheless, the women-only app has come below hearth for being “anti-men”, and for an information breach that noticed 13,000 person photographs leaked.
However what’s Tea? And why has it proved controversial?
What’s the app?
Tea Relationship Recommendation is a women-only app that enables customers to anonymously put up about males they’re relationship within the US.
The app’s web site says it was launched “to offer girls the instruments they should date safely” – and provides AI-powered reverse picture looking to catch catfish utilizing faux pictures on relationship profiles.
It additionally provides cellphone quantity looking to verify if males have “hidden marriages”, background checks to search for legal data, and a map of registered intercourse offenders.
Whereas these options aren’t distinctive to Tea – with most being publicly accessible – the app provides them in a single package deal.
Tea additionally touts that it has “the biggest girls’s group chat within the US, the place customers share experiences, nameless relationship opinions, and help”.
Sean Prepare dinner, a Bay Space tech government, based and self-funded the app in 2023 as a result of his mom was catfished and talked to males with legal data whereas relationship on-line.
Learn extra: ‘It’s not you, it’s dating’: Where is modern love going wrong?
Tea app
Who can use it?
Solely girls can use the app, which requires customers to register by making a username together with location, beginning date, a photograph and official identification.
Tea says it deletes all photographs after a evaluate, the place moderators approve or deny purposes and confirm if new customers are girls.
All customers who get accepted are promised anonymity exterior of the usernames they select, and taking screenshots of what is within the app can be blocked.
As soon as permitted, customers can go away feedback describing particular males as a “crimson flag” or “inexperienced flag”, and share different details about them.
Feedback on Tea’s Instagram present that purposes aren’t that simple nevertheless, with quite a lot of individuals saying it takes days to be permitted.
Whereas males can’t use the app, Tea says any takedown requests ought to be emailed to their help desk with their title, location, as a lot info as potential in regards to the content material in query, in addition to a photograph.
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What are the issues?
Tea has confronted a heavy backlash, with The Instances calling it a “man-shaming” app, and a put up within the MensRights subreddit saying it “should be deleted”.
Very similar to the Fb pages it resembles, the app has additionally been criticised for devolving into locations for gossip or for spreading potential misinformation about individuals.
Sky’s US accomplice community NBC Information reported that judges in Illinois and California dismissed two defamation lawsuits filed by males who have been posted in such Fb teams.
Writing for the tradition web site Dazed, Serena Smith stated it is “clear how an app like Tea might be abused”, noting doxxing – the place non-public details about somebody is shared on-line with malicious intent – and issues about males “who aren’t abusers” having their info revealed.
Chatting with Fox 2, lawyer William Barnwell stated males may have civil authorized recourse if the posts have an effect on their work, household life, or fame as defamation may apply.
A male-only model of the app – Cheeky – has additionally been launched, providing nameless chats about relationship. It says on it is official Instagram that it is “our response to the Tea App”.
Nonetheless, NBC Information reported the creator of Teaborn – a earlier men-only different that climbed to quantity three within the free apps chart – had condemned its customers for allegedly sharing revenge porn on that app.
What occurred with the Tea knowledge breach?
NBC Information reported that 1000’s of accounts have been leaked after a hacker managed to breach the corporate’s database.
Tea has confirmed the leak to Sky Information, and stated it had recognized “unauthorised entry to one in all their programs and instantly launched a full investigation to evaluate the scope and impression”.
In preliminary findings, the corporate stated the incident concerned a legacy knowledge storage system containing info from previous to February 2024.
It’s estimated that round 72,000 pictures – together with roughly 13,000 pictures of selfies or selfies that includes a photograph identification submitted throughout account verification and 59,000 pictures publicly viewable within the app from posts, feedback and direct messages – have been accessed.
“Defending Tea customers’ privateness and knowledge is their highest precedence,” it stated. “Tea is taking each mandatory step to make sure the safety of the platform and stop additional publicity.”
Posts on social media counsel the leak was first posted on 4chan and has been shared extensively since then. Sky Information has not independently verified any leaked info.
