Set aside your Earl Grey, chamomile, and green tea because the real tea is on a new app that has taken social media by storm with “tea” of its own. And now, those affected by said tea are clapping back.
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A new women-only safety app called Tea allows users to anonymously share red and green flags about the men they’ve dated. Their reviews include dating stories, testimonials, and first-hand “reviews” of their experiences with men in their city.
Tea has become SO popular, the app currently holds the No. 1 spot in Apple’s App Store, has over four million users, and the waitlist to join the app is longer than a Monday morning. In order to join, users must upload a selfie, which is reportedly deleted after confirming they are female, then choose their username.
After being approved, users are allowed to comment on men’s pictures, that also show their first name. Varying reviews include whether they are broke, how they perform in the bedroom, whether they are faithful, or fathered kids they don’t even acknowledge. App users, who can also look up individual names via the search bar or even create custom alerts for a specific person, cannot take screenshots or screen record.
Sean Cook, a white man, created the Tea app after his mother’s “terrifying experience with online dating,” per his LinkedIn profile. The app has sparked heated discourse online, from those who say the app can help save women from “abusers and predators,” while others say its a petri dish of gossip, slander, and misinformation based on unverifiable claims.
One man didn’t take his Tea app review laying down, writing on X how he “filed a copyright/publicity complaint via Apple Legal – App Store Dispute Form. Apple looped in Tea devs, warned them. Post was gone in hours. If this happens to you, go through Apple since they have to respond.”
Some men wanted in on the action themselves. “Teaborn,” a men-only equivalent app that allows men to upload reviews of their own about women, climbed to No. 3 in the free apps chart Wednesday (July 23). It disappeared from the app store shortly after, although its unclear whether accusations its users shared revenge porn on their platform was the reason why. A rep for Teaborn told NBC News, “Apple just removed us yesterday because Tea app doesn’t like competition, but we are working to go back with a new brand!”
What’s “tea” to one person might be a privacy breach or defamation to another, and some men are considering legal action. Attorney William Barnwell told Fox 2 that men could use the legal system if the app’s posts affect their family life, work, or reputation. “I could see some areas where this could cause people some big problems,” Barnwell said. “Truth is an absolute defense for a defamation claim; you can’t just sue someone because your feelings are hurt.”
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