> Upon opening Tea, users are presented with local men whose photos have been uploaded, along with their first names. For each of the men, other women on the app can report whether they deem him a “red flag” or a “green flag” and leave comments about him, such as those recounting negative date experiences or vouching for him as a friend.
The potential problems with this seems obvious…
People on the internet love to judge, gossip and people who know nothing are happy to pile on and spread rumors.
Just the ability to post photos reminds me of the old creepy “fashion” subreddits that clearly were not about fashion…
Won't be long before NBC will update or retract the story. Clearly they're going to be named and shamed. "Women to beware leaked tea" is a funny story.
scotty79 · 12h ago
"Signing up for Tea requires users to take selfies, which the app says are deleted after review, to prove they are women." .... riiight
2OEH8eoCRo0 · 10h ago
What is a woman? Why is Tea so transphobic?
mcs5280 · 16h ago
They leaked all their users identify verification photos this morning, turns out they were storing them in an open firebase bucket.
Are you shadow banned? I can only upvote and comment on this single edited comment from you.
Are edited comments unflagged somehow? Weird.
sigwinch · 17h ago
Should be obvious that purposefully publicizing some derivative of reputation is going to be used for more harm than good.
New Federal laws mean that individuals can get certain pictures removed. AI likenesses might circumvent those, but you have to wonder how far to trust (positive or negative) anonymous ratings from someone who put the work into crafting an avatar of some guy.
While there’s a noble pursuit behind it, we’ll never see the trouble that it prevented. Instead we’ll see scams where a guy will provide doctored screenshots from Tea that cannot be independently verified. Of course, he’ll be new in town, or need some money.
bjourne · 9h ago
There were Facebook groups like these in Sweden. Men were given labels such as "fuckboys", "charming appearance, disappointing performance in bed", and "sexually attracted to children"... Whoever think things like these work better because it's women talking shit about men, rather than the contrary, is delusional.
pridzone · 15h ago
It would be in Apple and Google’s best interest to pull these apps immediately. Multiple Supreme Court justices have indicated an interest in narrowing the breadth of section 230 immunity. This app, structured entirely around effecting the reputation of private individuals, provides a relatively clean case to do so. It’s not a stretch that the app could be considered a ‘developer in part’ of the content it hosts, and thus lose section 230 protection.
A narrowing of section 230 would not be good for Apple or Google, though they wouldn’t face any liability for the Tea apps conduct.
Dracophoenix · 13h ago
Even if Section 230 is written out, the First Amendment still defends app makers from prior restraint. As demonstrated in Snyder v Phelps, It's not illegal to embarrass private individuals or provide a service/platform that permits such an outcome.
pridzone · 13h ago
It is potentially illegal to embarrass private individuals. It’s covered by state defamation and privacy torts. Privacy torts, such as ‘public disclosure of private facts’ can apply even if the information is true. Without section 230 immunity, the app developer can face liability for user generated content. Section 230 protections don’t apply if the app acted as a ‘developer in part’ of the content.
Dracophoenix · 13h ago
Thank you for the clarification.
ashoeafoot · 13h ago
They do that openly on TikTok. The love of your life needs an extra for fake soapopera drama..
OutOfHere · 17h ago
Spreading gossip on anyone is extremely evil. It's even more evil when there is a dearth of evidence-seeking objectivity as is commonly the case in society.
Doxxing someone's personal details is independently evil.
Defamation is simply illegal.
There have existed background search services, video chat, location sharing, ID exchange, test results exchange, etc. which do the job without gossip.
sillyfluke · 12h ago
>Spreading gossip on anyone is extremely evil.
This a naive take. A moderate amount of gossip is good for society. It's a poor man's way of weeding out sociopaths who try to control people using information asymmetry, and who themselves don't have any qualms about spreading falsehoods.
OutOfHere · 12h ago
To be clear, it is those who spread unsubstantiated gossip that are the sociopaths.
archagon · 11h ago
If I dated somebody who was abusive or a cheater, I would absolutely want everyone in their future dating pool to know. There's nothing evil about that; if anything, it's more "evil" to stay silent and let innocent people get hurt.
OutOfHere · 4h ago
The issue is that no one knows who posts the truth and who posts exaggerations or lies. People can sometimes have a personal vendetta that is rooted in emotion or even idiocy. I imagine that the app isn't exactly set up to vote on assertions with personal accounts, to allow the truth to emerge.
I will tell you a very simple way to avoid cheaters if that's your goal. Look at their interests. Do their interests involve meeting people and doing lots of social things? Or are they more of an academic type? If they're the former, odds are they will cheat on you eventually. I basically told my partner directly that it's impossible for any man to truly promise that he will never cheat, but my interests make it extremely unlikely that I will, and she was okay with this assertion.
The potential problems with this seems obvious…
People on the internet love to judge, gossip and people who know nothing are happy to pile on and spread rumors.
Just the ability to post photos reminds me of the old creepy “fashion” subreddits that clearly were not about fashion…
Women dating safety app 'Tea' breached, users' IDs posted to 4chan - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44684373 - July 2025 (67 comments)
On topic: how this doxed person got their details removed - https://x.com/JacobJohnson494/status/1948222924235624870
------------
4chan thread with details of the hack - https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/511317913
A 60 Gig torrent exists of the data - https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1948787086493901097
18.13GB:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:3e5a8c55eb4720b4fbd1d0fb5c45adb0fad53569&dn=tea
Are edited comments unflagged somehow? Weird.
New Federal laws mean that individuals can get certain pictures removed. AI likenesses might circumvent those, but you have to wonder how far to trust (positive or negative) anonymous ratings from someone who put the work into crafting an avatar of some guy.
While there’s a noble pursuit behind it, we’ll never see the trouble that it prevented. Instead we’ll see scams where a guy will provide doctored screenshots from Tea that cannot be independently verified. Of course, he’ll be new in town, or need some money.
A narrowing of section 230 would not be good for Apple or Google, though they wouldn’t face any liability for the Tea apps conduct.
Doxxing someone's personal details is independently evil.
Defamation is simply illegal.
There have existed background search services, video chat, location sharing, ID exchange, test results exchange, etc. which do the job without gossip.
This a naive take. A moderate amount of gossip is good for society. It's a poor man's way of weeding out sociopaths who try to control people using information asymmetry, and who themselves don't have any qualms about spreading falsehoods.
I will tell you a very simple way to avoid cheaters if that's your goal. Look at their interests. Do their interests involve meeting people and doing lots of social things? Or are they more of an academic type? If they're the former, odds are they will cheat on you eventually. I basically told my partner directly that it's impossible for any man to truly promise that he will never cheat, but my interests make it extremely unlikely that I will, and she was okay with this assertion.