The 404 Media Podcast

Episode: "The Inside Story of Tea"

August 20, 2025

Host: Joseph Cox
Co-hosts: Sam Cole, Emmanuel Mayberg, Jason Kebler

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into Emmanuel Mayberg's investigative reporting on "Tea," a viral women's dating safety app that promised to help women share and find information about men posing risks in online dating. The hosts unpack the app's explosive growth, multiple catastrophic data breaches, the questionable ethical practices used to market the app, and the murky origins and intentions behind it. They discuss the parallels to — and conflicts with — the grassroots Facebook groups "Are We Dating the Same Guy?", and examine the conduct of Tea’s male founder, Sean Cook. The episode also briefly shifts to discuss the dangers of GPS trackers marketed for stalking on TikTok, covered by their intern Rosie Thomas.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What is Tea and Why Did It Go Viral?

• Tea's Promise:

  • "Tea is an app that went viral in late July. It pitches itself as a women’s dating safety app... Women can create an account after they verify that they are in fact women. And they then share information about men that they know or have dated, thereby allowing other women to stay away from them if they're bad or have other women vouch for them if they're safe and good to date."
    — Emmanuel Mayberg [04:49]
  • App aimed to provide a database for women to anonymously flag or endorse men, offering safety in online dating.

• Data Breaches:

  • Two major incidents occurred:
    • First hack: Data accessed via 4chan, including women’s selfies and IDs used for verification [05:20].
    • Second, more severe breach: Over 1.1 million highly sensitive user messages leaked, with devastating context including abortions, cheating, and more [05:37].
  • Despite these breaches, the app’s user base skyrocketed, reportedly reaching over 7 million users.

2. The Facebook Groups Preceding Tea

• Origin Story — Paula Sanchez and ‘Are We Dating The Same Guy?’
  • Grassroots Facebook groups started by Paula Sanchez, spanning over 200 cities, amassed 7 million members [07:13].
  • Served a similar protective, information-sharing function but was run by women, for women.
  • Legal and online harassment followed: Significant lawsuits from men featured in the groups, doxxing campaigns by Telegram groups [08:26].

3. Tea's Attempted Co-option and Aggressive Expansion

• Tea Reaches Out to Sanchez:

  • Before launching, Tea’s representatives sought out Sanchez to become the female face of the app but she declined [10:02-10:30].
  • Upon rejection, Tea allegedly pivoted to aggressive, sometimes deceptive promotional tactics.

• Allegations of Inauthentic Marketing:

  • Massive spam campaigns in the Facebook groups:
    • "All these users are showing up and posting about Tea...like spam. Some accounts were hijacked; some were paid boosting."
      — Emmanuel Mayberg [12:27]
  • Facebook Account Hijacking:
    • Accounts would change hands (e.g., a real profile like "Jason Kebler" becomes "Diane Smith"), easily detectable due to mismatched URLs and names.
      — Jason Kebler [14:31]
    • Scaled up via companies selling mass “boosting” using compromised accounts [16:03].

• Fake Facebook Groups:

  • Tea’s CEO Sean Cook reportedly created decoy groups named similarly to the original ones, but tagged with “Tea app,” confusing many users [17:15].
  • Result: Users mistakenly thought Tea was the “official” Are We Dating the Same Guy? app [18:41].

4. Fake Influencers, Podcasts & Viral Tactics

• Astroturfed Social Influence:
  • Hired SG Social Branding, a company of “35 Gen Z influencers,” to pose as ordinary women enthusiastically recommending Tea over Facebook groups [19:16-22:30].
  • Notably produced fake podcast videos and “man-on-the-street” clips, never disclosing the commercial relationship.
  • "The idea that there’s a man paying 35 young women to pretend to authentically engage with this app…It’s a really, really nasty example of this type of marketing."
    — Emmanuel Mayberg [23:16]

5. Deep Dive: Tea's CEO Sean Cook

• Background and "Move Fast and Break Things" Attitude:
  • Former Salesforce exec, classic startup grinding, hired cheap overseas developers, apparently cut corners on security [24:52].
  • "If you’re looking to find why they had security issues, it’s because he did the quickest, cheapest way to develop an app like this…"
    — Emmanuel Mayberg [25:32]
  • Changed the app’s marketing backstory multiple times (from his fiancée’s experience, then retroactively his mother’s) [26:30].
  • At one point, personally pretended to be “Tara,” the female support persona on Tea, misleading users reaching out for support [27:55].
  • "He’s on the app pretending to be a woman, talking to other women…just betraying people’s trust."
    — Emmanuel Mayberg [28:30]

6. Notable Quote From Tea's Official Response

• "Building and scaling an app to meet the demand we’ve seen is a complex process. Along the way, we’ve collaborated with many, learned a great deal, and continue to improve."
  — Tea spokesperson, paraphrased by Joseph Cox [28:43]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "The way that they're doing it is through a botnet of zombie accounts, more or less."
  — Jason Kebler [16:03]

• "All marketing is deception, but it is deception. And then, like, be so severely compromised. It's like, it's a really, really nasty example of this type of marketing, I think."
  — Emmanuel Mayberg [23:16]

• "He's on the app pretending to be a woman...just betraying people's trust and his users' trust I think is pretty bad."
  — Emmanuel Mayberg [28:30]

• "The confusion has permeated where some people believe that [Tea is Are We Dating the Same Guy?], and you can't really blame them because they've been misled by these Facebook groups."
  — Joseph Cox [18:41]

Important Segment Timestamps

• Overview and Tea Introduction: 04:49–06:26
• Facebook Groups Context (Paula Sanchez): 07:13–10:02
• Aggressive Expansion & Spam Marketing: 12:27–16:42
• Fake Groups and User Confusion: 17:15–19:16
• Astroturfing & Fake Influencers: 19:16–24:22
• CEO Behavior & Security Issues: 24:52–28:30
• Tea's Official Response: 28:43

Bonus Segment: TikTok Shop GPS Tracker Story

Overview

Intern Rosie Thomas discusses her investigation into TikTok Shop sellers openly marketing GPS trackers for stalking and coercive control.

• Creepy TikToks:

  • Ads show GPS trackers being “discreetly” attached to cars, pitched for tracking partners suspected of cheating [34:24].
  • "They’re very much being framed as a way to calm somebody’s suspicions about a cheating partner."
    — Rosie Thomas [34:24]

• Legal Landscape:

  • Laws vary by state, but many forms of non-consensual GPS tracking are banned or prosecutable as stalking [41:28].

• TikTok’s Response:

  • TikTok removed the specific accounts shown in the reporting, but similar ads persisted wide-scale afterwards [43:36, 45:06].

• Real-World Impact:

  • This is an evolution of "stalkerware"—technologies commonly used in intimate partner abuse scenarios, as previously reported on by 404 Media [37:45].

Overall Episode Tone and Style

The conversation is informal but deeply informed—punctuated with dry humor, exasperation, and journalistic rigor. The hosts share personal experience with the beats they cover, cite concrete investigations, and are unsparing in highlighting the dangers of technological negligence or cynical manipulation.

Summary in a Nutshell

This episode offers an unflinching look at how vulnerable communities and individuals—primarily women seeking safety—can be targeted and exploited both by technology startups chasing viral growth and by the platforms they rely on. The journalistic team doesn’t just recount events: they surface the structures (spam operations, fake influencer campaigns, questionable leadership) that power these digital phenomena, and pull back the curtain on the risks and deceptions underlying seemingly empowering tools.

For listeners eager to understand not just the "Tea" scandal, but the larger lessons about tech, trust, and harm, this is a must-listen.