Rising Disinformation Concerns Surround Popular Social App

Controversy swirls around Miami University campus as students grapple with the implications of Tea Dating Service, a mobile application that has gained rapid popularity despite raising serious ethical concerns among the student body.

The app, which allows women to post photos and identifying information about men they have dated or encountered, along with ratings and comments, has already disrupted relationships and sparked heated discussions about privacy and consent throughout the university community.

For sophomore finance major Ben Herrholtz, the app’s impact hit close to home when his roommate became an unwitting subject on the platform. “My roommate has been posted on it, and it caused him and his girlfriend to break up,” Herrholtz explained. “His ex-girlfriend wrote some things that weren’t true about him, and his girlfriend saw that.”

While Tea Dating Service was originally designed with safety in mind—providing women with a platform to anonymously alert each other about potentially predatory behavior and offering tools like criminal record checks and reverse image searches—the app has evolved into something more problematic. Many users have reportedly transformed it into a forum for airing grievances, sometimes sharing information that lacks verification.

First-year business major Natalia Salazar downloaded the app after hearing that male friends had been featured on it. “It’s all fun and games, but I think that it could lead to very false interpretations of people,” Salazar noted. “The things that they say about some of our friends, if you met them, it’s not exactly true.”

This sentiment was echoed by Kate Beard, a first-year sport communication and media major, who initially found the app entertaining but changed her perspective after witnessing friends’ reactions to posts about them. “It’s not 100% accurate,” Beard said, “so I would never base my opinion on somebody just from those comments.”

The gender-exclusive design of the app—requiring users to verify they are female before creating an account—leaves male students with little recourse when they become subjects of discussion. Adam Arling, a first-year kinesiology major, reported that at least five of his friends have been posted on the app, often with information that blends truth with falsehoods.

“They’re getting posted on this app without their consent, and it’s also anonymous comments, so they’re getting potentially false information spread about them,” Arling explained.

Herrholtz expressed concern about the app’s permanent nature, which doesn’t allow for personal growth or redemption. “I understand customer reviews for something like a product on Amazon, but a customer review for somebody who’s dating someone… I feel like you’re just not giving them the opportunity to change as a person,” he said.

University officials have taken notice of the app’s growing presence on campus. Ellie Grossman, assistant director for sexual and interpersonal violence prevention for Student Health Services, learned about Tea from resident assistants who reported its popularity among students. While acknowledging the positive intention of helping students protect one another, Grossman expressed concern about the implementation.

“The basis of the app, that’s a good thing,” Grossman said. “We want our students to know how to take care of each other. We want our students to be able to share resources. This is just maybe manifested into something that is not the ideal way we would want them to do that.”

Some users have attempted to provide balance within the platform. First-year education major Ava Vasquez noted that some women defend their friends in the comments section, though this fact-checking occurs on only a small portion of posts.

From an administrative standpoint, Alex Fields, director of the Office of Community Standards, clarified that while Miami University has policies to protect student safety and well-being, there are no policies specifically addressing individual apps like Tea. Fields also mentioned that the university does not actively monitor the app but encouraged students to report harm they experience or witness.

“It’s not a space for us, so if something comes up that should be shared or should be addressed, students have to tell us,” Fields explained. “That’s not to say that we’re completely unaware, but we aren’t in all the same spaces that our students are.”

As the app continues to gain traction on campus, the Miami University community faces difficult questions about the balance between safety, privacy, and the potential for reputational damage in the digital age.