ANH HUYNH
A student checks out Tea Dating Advice, an app created for women to share their experiences with specific men to vet out potential partners. The IOS App Store recently removed Tea following a data breach that exposed the shared images and direct messages of its users.
Tea Dating Advice, an app that recently faced both popularity and controversy, was removed from the iOS App Store on Oct. 21 for failing to comply with Apple’s rules regarding content moderation and user privacy.
Designed to let women upload photos of potential suitors and vet them with green or red flags, the app features an anonymous comment section for users to share their romantic experiences. While Tea’s intent was to promote accountability and transparency, its functions have been problematic from the beginning.
The Tea app faced a data breach in late July, exposing direct messages and 72,000 images, some of which included photos for identity verification, according to Business Insider.
BU senior Cynthia Njenga, first heard about the app over the summer and joined in August after several of her friends did. At first, Njenga said she was hesitant to join because of the data breaches but still verified her identity with a photo upon downloading.
After users upload a photo, the app checks if they are a woman, a process that Njenga said took two weeks.
BU senior Taijah Chavis, said the app’s verification process feels exclusionary and reinforced limited ideas of femininity.
“I generally just don’t like the policing of bodies and faces like that,” she said. “There are so many downsides to this predetermined concept of what it looks like to be a woman.”
Though the app’s comment feature is meant to allow users to share their experiences with men, Chavis said it has turned into a toxic space filled with unchecked accusations.
“Because it’s anonymous, it also opens doors for people to be rude or negative,” Chavis said. “Some women can be really transphobic and homophobic in a way that’s disguised as feminism.”
BU sophomore Jaise King said the app’s execution blurs ethical lines.
“It was a very invasive app when I went deeper into it. The initial mission of the app is something I find super noble,” King said. “But after a certain point, it just results in people talking bad [about] men without any type of opportunity for a firsthand account from that person.”
King said he had a “change of heart” after seeing someone he knew on Tea receive negative comments. Allowing users to post about others without oversight, King said, risked turning the app into a platform for cyberbullying.
“Where [are] the checks on this? Where is the oversight? What’s the process?” King said. “It’s just allowed to just fester there with all these comments being made about you and no way to really control that flow of info[rmation].”
BU senior Alice Koranteng said though she never downloaded the app, she was surprised by its fate.
“I thought it was doing what it needed to do,” Koranteng said. “I felt like the only issue is there could be a lot of bashing people maybe who don’t need to be bashed.”
Njenga said she feels women are using the app to “learn information about men,” and the information posted should be viewed critically.
“If you have 50 comments saying you’re an abuser, maybe you’re an abuser,” Njenga said. “You need to be critical of the stuff you read … It’s good to go on the app with clear intentions.”
Koranteng, who found negative comments about her romantic interest on his Tea profile, said the app’s rise and fall conveys how uncertain online dating has become.
“Just like anything else in the world, [there’s] a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “There’s definitely a certain amount of mystery that you should be okay with finding out for yourself.”
King said while Tea was taken off the App Store, there’s still room for an app to function successfully — if monitored correctly.
“There’s a lot of weirdos out here,” he said. “It’s not really my place to comment on the implementation of ideas, but when you don’t have oversight, it leads to a troubling omen.”