The Tea app is now the subject of 10 class-action lawsuits in both federal and state courts after a major security flaw resulted in users’ photo IDs, names, and locations being leaked.
The Tea app was initially created in 2023 as a dating safety program to help women discuss men in their area and alert each other about any potential threats.
However, a huge flaw in its security was discovered by hackers in July 2025, who reportedly disseminated 72,000 images, 13,000 of which contained users’ verification photos and government IDs.
Not long after that, the app’s DMs were also breached, with hackers exposing 1.1 million private chats that included personal conversations between users involving sensitive information like phone numbers and legal names.
In response, Tea disabled its DM system and offered users free identity protection — but the damage was already done.
As of August 7, 2025, at least 10 women have sued the app in federal and state courts, claiming that Tea was careless in its security and even breached a contract with them.
The Tea app was created as a way for women to safely communicate about men in their area.
Tea app could be sued for hundreds of millions
Scott Cole is a lawyer who is spearheading a lawsuit against the Tea app on behalf of his client, Griselda Reyes, as well as four other women who requested to join the suit.
“Her particular concerns have more to do with information that she has shared with others on the site and how that might come back to haunt her in the future, and I think that’s probably the No. 1 concern that I’ve heard directly or indirectly from users,” Cole told NBC News.
One of the lawsuits against the Tea app names 4Chan, Teaspill and X as defendants, accusing the social platforms and accounts of spreading the information maliciously to target the women whose data had been leaked.
“The app promised her that anonymity. It promised her safety. It promised to delete her verification data. Tea broke every one of those promises,” the suit states.
Four of the lawsuits are seeking $5 million in damages as a result of harassment and doxxing from the breach — but experts say these amounts could get much higher.
Brian Fitzpatrick spoke with NBC News about the suits. As a professor at Vanderbilt Law School with a specialization in class action lawsuits, he says Tea, X and 4Chan could be looking at hundreds of millions in payouts to the defendants.
“It could be more of an existential threat to their existence,” Fitzpatrick told the outlet. “Not maybe so much because of the amount of money that they might have to pay, but just because, I think, this is awful for their reputation. I don’t know if people are going to trust them anymore, and so they might lose all their users.”
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