Apple has removed the Tea Dating Advice and TeaOnHer dating review apps from its App Store for violating its content moderation policies, reports MacRumors.
Apple pulled the app in all countries on October 21, and it told TechCrunch that the app developers did not meet requirements for moderation and user privacy, violating App Store guidelines 1.2, 5.1.2, and 5.6. Apple also saw an “excessive number of user complaints and negative reviews,” which included complaints of users sharing the personal information of minors.
Rule 1.2 says that apps need to have reporting and blocking features, and should remove objectionable content. Meanwhile, rule 5.1.2 prohibits apps from sharing the personal information of users without permission, and rule 5.6 says that excessive negative reviews violate Apple’s Developer Code of Conduct.
Although Apple contacted the developers of the apps, the complaints were not addressed, says the report.
Both apps have only recently generated several headlines and viral interest on the internet, even though Tea has been available since 2023. The app was pitched as a dating safety tool for women, and users were encouraged to “spill the tea” (provide details) about men found on dating apps. The “tea” often included the mens’ personal information, provided reviews ala Yelp, and had users give the men a “green flag” or a “red flag.”
However, man of the men in question considered the app to be an invasion of their privacy and began raising questions about how the information was being shared, and whether the posts could be considered defamation.
To rub salt into the wound, Tea suffered a data breach over the summer, with bad actors gaining access to 72,000 images, including 3,000 selfies and photo IDs submitted for account verification, as well as 59,000 images from posts, comments, and direct messages.
While Apple has removed the two apps from its App Store, at the time of this writing, both apps are still available in the Google Play Store and multiple copycat apps are also available in both app stores.
