TeaOnHer, a dating-safety app accused of allowing anonymous users to post names, photos, and locations of minors and women alongside sexually explicit and abusive comments, is under congressional scrutiny, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
In a letter to company founder Xavier Lampkin, House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chair Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said the platform hosts "seemingly illegal content" and may violate federal and state laws. The lawmakers demanded documentation on age and consent verification, content moderation, and procedures for removing defamatory or harassing material.
Their inquiry follows an August TechCrunch report that exposed a security flaw, which allowed access to user emails, location data, IDs, and selfies. Lawmakers warned that such vulnerabilities could further endanger minors and women whose images appear without consent. Apple had reportedly removed TeaOnHer and a similar app called Tea on Tuesday for breaching the privacy and content standards of the App Store.
The company has also faced prior security incidents, including a July hack of Tea that exposed 72,000 images, including over 10,000 IDs, which were later shared on the message board 4chan.
