Alex Tisdale 
The Tea app has gone viral/Photo credit: screen shot of app in Apple App store
What is the Tea app? This is a women-only app where women can share information about their partners and receive feedback. Currently, the Tea app is the number one lifestyle app in the App Store, with over 1 million downloads over the past week.
With downloads this week, it surpasses apps like TikTok and Instagram. The tea app is an online safety app that allows users to send information about men and ask other users if there’s any history behind them or any advice. So far, it has gained much popularity on social media platforms like TikTok.
“The Tea is shaking! The new Tea app, that is. Everybody is talking about the new app for women to find out about the men in their area and see whether or not they hold red or green flags. There’s a lot to the story, I’ve seen so much already.” Said TikToker, Everybodyhatekrissy.
Initially launched by founder Sean Cook, his motivation for creating an app like this was due to his mother‘s suffering from getting catfished online. So far, most reviews are positive, while others have multiple issues.
What makes the tea app different from other apps is that the app goes to extra mile to identify and verify the men that are posted on there.
“The Tea App is an app where women are able to get on the platform and basically do like a background check on the man that they’re dating or seeing or whatever, and was meant to be kind of a space where you can protect yourself from abusers and you know men of those sorts.” said TikToker Rahma Solana.
The app can even go as far as to see if a man is a part of the sex offender registry.
“Now the app claims to use things like background checks, catfish image searches, sex offender searches, and other things in there so basically do their full thorough background checks. I think people can also give my testimonies and stories.” Solana said.
The app can also perform phone number lookups to verify whether a man is in a hidden marriage or has a concerning history behind it. The overall app is anonymous, meaning that creating screenshots is impossible.
With this in mind, the app still has limitations. Users can be in legal trouble for potentially defamatory posts or false accusations.
Global Cybersecurity, Jake Moore, stated that the tea app can be used to spread unverified accusations.
“The app could easily be used to spread unverified accusations, especially with its anonymous nature, and could even be used as a revenge tool,” Moore said. “While its intentions are simple and protective, the unregulated format could unfortunately open it up to abuse,” he says.
Right now, the tea app is available in all US app stores, but it is not available in countries such as Europe due to the strict data protection measures. To join the app, women would have to wait on a waitlist to be accepted.
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