The Tea app’s place in the online gender divide

The Tea app data leak has become subject to a broader online conversation of a “gender war”.

Tea is a US-only app marketed as a safe space for women to share information on and their experiences with men they had dated. The app was hacked in late July 2025, with over 70,000 user-related images leaked online. These images included IDs and selfies of users taken for verification during sign up, and had been expressly stated by Tea to be “deleted immediately”.

The leaked personal data was exploited by misogynist online communities to harass the individuals involved. Some of these individuals also faced derision on social media platforms such as X and TikTok, causing them emotional distress and leading some to pursue legal action against Tea.

In a 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center, more than half of female respondents indicated that they feel that dating apps were unsafe. Apps such as Tea have been regarded as solutions to hold men accountable for their actions and behaviour toward women within the dating sphere. 

However, controversy arose around Tea’s model, where the validity of the information posted about men cannot easily be verified. The exclusion of men on the platform barred them from seeing discussions related to them, and withheld from them a voice to make their case in these discussions.

For women, Tea promised safety and anonymity, but the leak left many feeling more vulnerable than before. For men, it created a space that ultimately encouraged their defamation, with no avenue for recourse.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce87rer52k3o