Latest news with #Dazed
News.com.au
3 days ago
- News.com.au
72,000 women's photos and locations exposed in nightmare data breach
A once-empowering app designed to protect women from catfishers, criminals and creeps has turned into a privacy nightmare. Tea Dating Advice, the female-only app that soared to popularity this July, was hailed a game-changer in identifying dodgy men and enabling women to 'swipe safely.' The Yelpâ€'style platform grants women access to a forum where they can post anonymous ratings of men they're seeing and ask other women for 'tea' - aka gossip/dirt. Think of it like writing a scathing review of that regretful Tinder date you went on with the footâ€'fetish guy, or simply venting about your ex. The app is armed with AI-powered features to help you steer clear of danger in the chaos of modern dating: including background checks, reverse image lookups, sex offender registry searches, and the ability to set alerts on men's names. The 'revolutionary' dating tool had a rapid rise, but an equally fast downfall. Youth and pop culture magazine Dazed argued that the app's model teeters on 'digital vigilantism', allowing women to post photos of men without their consent, raising serious privacy questions. And now those very concerns are front and centre. Quietly launched in 2023 by tech founder Sean Cook, Tea remained under the radar, only rocketing to number one on Apple's US App Store at the beginning of July 2025. Last Friday, the company confirmed it suffered 'unauthorised access to an archived data system', exposing roughly 72,000 userâ€'submitted images. 13,000 selfies and photo IDs used for verification, plus 59,000 images from posts, comments and direct messages dating back over two years. Tea's Instagram statement insisted the breach affected only a 'legacy storage system' and that users who signed up after February 2024 were not impacted. 'We've acted fast and we're working with some of the most trusted cybersecurity experts,' the company said. Tea claims it stored those images to comply with cyber-bullying prevention laws. But critics have questioned - if photo IDs were supposed to be deleted after verification, why did thousands remain in an exposed archive? In 2023, the app reportedly stopped requiring photo IDs for new signups, yet the breached data set still contained thousands of them. While Tea was celebrating two million new users, an anonymous 4chan user posted a database of photos, including location-tied data and even a map - which sparked heated discussion across X and Facebook. These posts have since been removed. It's likely no coincidence that 4chan, infamous for online harassment, was a vocal critic of the app, with some users calling for it to be hacked in the days after it blew up on social media. Tea is just the latest target in a broader debate about women using tech to stay safe and the backlash that often follows. Apps and groups aimed at outing cheaters or dangerous men have gained traction on social media, but they've also triggered lawsuits, hate campaigns, and arguments about defamation and privacy. Cook said the app was born out of watching his mother's 'terrifying' experience with online dating. She was catfished and unknowingly interacted with men who had criminal histories. But sadly, in trying to fix one safety issue, Cook created another.
New York Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Divisive new app lets women put bad dates on blast — and men are freaking out: ‘Digital vigilantism'
There's a new app causing men to break into a cold sweat — and it's not because they forgot their wallet on a first date. Tea, a women-only app that lets users post anonymous Yelp-style reviews of men they've dated, has shot to the top of the Apple App Store — and smack into the middle of a digital war between safety and slander. The platform, launched in 2023, lets women share stories and warnings about exes, Tinder flops, and potential predators. Advertisement 3 Forget ghosting — this app has men begging to be left off the grid. Studio Romantic – Users can toss out 'green flags' or 'red flags' — or, in some cases, blast a guy's entire romantic résumé into cyberspace. The feed is full of candid commentary, catfish alerts, and more than a few 'avoid this man' declarations. Advertisement 'I see men freaking out today about this Tea app,' TikTokker @azalialexi said in a recent video. 'If you don't want things like this to exist then maybe look into advocating for women's safety and actually holding your fellow men accountable.' Tea's website claims the app was born after its founder, Sean Cook, 'witnessed his mother's terrifying experience with online dating — not only being catfished but unknowingly engaging with men who had criminal records.' It now boasts nearly 1 million users, and it's not just the safety features — like reverse image search and criminal background checks — that are turning heads. The public reviews are what really set the app ablaze. Advertisement 3 Launched in 2023, the app lets women dish on shady dates, dodgy exes and full-on predators — one swipe and horror story at a time. .tiktok/@theteapartygirls 'It's kind of like a Carfax situation,' Sabrina Henriquez, 28, who found out some of her exes had less-than-stellar ratings on Tea, told The Washington Post in a recent interview. 'It kind of saved [other women] from putting themselves in that situation.' Advertisement But not everyone's here for the gossip. 'I think the app has good intentions, it's just very messy,' Donovan James, 21, also told the outlet. 'You're always going to look bad in somebody's eyes.' Others worry it's turning into digital vigilantism. Apps like these or Facebook groups like 'Are We Dating The Same Guy' are the 'equivalent of whisper networks,' Chiara Wilkinson wrote for Dazed. Or as Dazed writer James Greig put it: 'It's digital vigilantism; the TikTok equivalent of a citizen's arrest.' Douglas Zytko, a professor at the University of Michigan at Flint, said to The Washington Post that the app is filling a void dating apps never addressed: safety. 3 Still, fears of false claims linger — and TikTok is crawling with jittery dudes doom-scrolling the damage. Mdv Edwards – 'There are multiple studies now showing that around 10 percent of overall cases of sexual assault are attributed to a dating app,' he noted. Advertisement Still, false accusations remain a fear. TikTok is now flooded with men nervously scrolling. 'Hot take: The tea app is toxic,' wrote @johnnysaysgo, who had a female friend go undercover to see what women were saying about him. 'These women were clearly just upset… I was honest with them and respectful.' User @ warned: 'Be careful.' He added that he can see the 'vision' behind the app but noted that he knows 'how vile' people who might use it could be. Advertisement And users like @kristakilduff are just enjoying the drama after getting accepted into the app. 'The men are not safe,' she said with a laugh in a recent clip. 'The Tea app has me weak — stay safe.' The backlash — and buzz — around Tea is just the latest sign that the digital dating landscape is shifting, and not necessarily for the better. As The Post previously reported, not all matches made in algorithm heaven are built to last. Advertisement A new study published in Computers in Human Behavior found that married couples who met online reported lower levels of satisfaction and stability than those who met IRL — a phenomenon dubbed the 'online dating effect.' Researchers pointed to factors like geographic distance, delayed family approval and lack of shared social circles as possible causes. So, while dating apps might be great for scoring first dates and flings, they may not always deliver happily ever after.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Harry Styles turns up the heat as his brand Pleasing drops lube and other adult toys that his fans did not see coming
Harry Styles has just redefined Pleasing, and no, it is not just about pretty nail polish anymore. The pop icon and fashion trailblazer is diving into the world of intimate self-care, proving he is not afraid to shake things up. On July 24, Styles' beauty and lifestyle brand announced the launch of two brand-new products that raised eyebrows and pulses: a sleek, double-sided vibrator priced at $68 and a personal lube called "The Pleasing Lube" for $25. When Harry met your nightstand The Grammy-winning singer made a cheeky nod to the release on July 23 by resharing the brand's teaser video to his Instagram Story. And if fans had any doubt this was peak Harry energy, the commercial starring Styles himself sealed the deal. In it, he picks up a landline phone, scribbles a mysterious message, and then casually reads out loud, "Please yourself like you mean it." everyone: we want hs4harry styles: literally go fuck yourself Pleasing goes bold, and bolder with Harry Styles What began in 2021 as a nail polish drop turned into a beauty revolution. Harry told Dazed back in the day that the brand's goal was to help people feel glowing, beautiful, and authentically themselves. With this new s*x-positive pivot, it is clear that Pleasing is not just about outer beauty anymore, Harry wants to get under your skin, literally and figuratively. i can't believe we live in a world where harry styles is dropping sex toys before hs4. harry styles vibrator before a new album i can't make this shit up lmfaooooooooooo From Watermelon Sugar to what not! Fans have long suspected that Styles had a knack for sensual metaphors. During a 2021 concert, the singer winkingly explained that "Watermelon Sugar" was about the sweetness of life... before dropping the bomb that it was actually a celebration of the female you-know-what. So, really, are we surprised? The vibrator and lube will debut at a pop-up event in New York on July 25, before being available online. The brand has not just dipped its toes but cannonballed into the intimate wellness pool, and fans are already thirsting for more.
New Statesman
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Beware the girlosphere
The word 'girlhood' is everywhere. But hearing it feels a bit like being flashed by a nudist. Nobody complains about Richard Linklater's film Boyhood; and 'childhood' is completely normal. As a young woman, I feel comfortable admitting I was recently a girl; but saying I had a 'girlhood' sounds bizarre. The feeling started to creep in around 2023, when the word came up as a fashion-industry descriptor – baby pink was legion and you couldn't move for fear of bumping into a hair bow. The online magazine Who What Wear collaged together some outfits by Miu Miu and Sandy Liang and used the headline 'How Celebrating Girlhood Quickly Became the Internet's Favourite Trend'; Dazed called the same thing 'Girlhood-core.' That year, director Sofia Coppola released a book of behind-the-scenes photos, bound in the same pastel pink, to her female fanbase. 'Bows, Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, and the entirety of Lana Del Rey's discography are all things that were once shamed for enjoying, but have become core components of what makes up girlhood…' The look isn't new. But it found its creepy moniker as adults flocked to TikTok over the pandemic, bearing years of residual Internet detritus from the time when Tumblr held most of the alternative market share. For around fifteen years this exact amalgamation of whites and pinks, Nouvelle Vague hairstyles, Lana Del Rey videos and Sofia Coppola films has held currency wherever young women exist online. The nostalgic aesthetic is refined but has no single creator; its resounding motifs have been pinned, reblogged and retweeted until they became a universal online language. Welcome to the girlosphere, the least understood corner of the political internet. We are already familiar with journalistic fretting about the 'manosphere,' which shovels anti-feminist and white nationalist ideology from underground message boards onto increasingly visible parts of mainstream social media. Influencer Andrew Tate allegedly radicalises young men into misogyny, they say (though recent Ofcom research has found his reach might be overstated); Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson forms the more acceptable face of this loose digital grouping. More than any individual, the manosphere's standard bearer might be the green cartoon frog, Pepe, who presides over the digital basement of the alt-right. In May this year, Stephen Graham's smash Netflix show Adolescence took over the national conversation. The four-part series follows the Miller family after their 13-year-old son kills a female classmate. It's all about male rage, and online misogyny. 'Adolescence is such powerful TV,' the Guardian wrote, 'that it could save lives.' Now, secondary school pupils in England are to be taught about incel culture, and misogyny inherent to the so-called manosphere, according to statutory government guidance recently published by the Labour government. Less thought – almost none – is given to the opposite corner of the internet. We know all too well about the damage social media has wrought to a specific class of online adolescent women. Their rates of depression, anxiety, and self-injury surged in the early 2010s, as social-media platforms proliferated and expanded. Being in the 'girlosphere' puts you at personal risk. The current 'manosphere' panic revolves around a group of all-powerful influencers, who basically act like radio pundits; it seems frivolous by comparison to worry about how the internet looks. But young women do things online that men don't; they make moodboards, curate feeds, and live vicariously through 'aesthetic' images. In this case, the visuals themselves might be key. The girlosphere is broad enough to subsume any ideology without obvious cognitive dissonance. The beliefs that reach it become glamorous by association; it is aesthetically coherent but politically all over the place. It has no Andrew Tate; its only universal 'influencers' are enigmatic fictional characters, models and pop stars. Nine or ten years ago you could plausibly be a teenage Dworkinite and have all the same glittery pink images on your blog as a pro-porn liberal. 'Cottagecore', the vague grouping of unthreatening rural aesthetics that emerged in the dying days of Tumblr, accommodated both 'tradwives' and second-wave feminists. Today, pro-eating disorder images on X and Pinterest are made more palatable when they use suitably 'coquette' images of Slavic fashion models. Dangerous habits get embedded in the girlosphere at light speed; young women searching for escapism are at higher risk of getting sucked in. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe The fictional basis of the girlosphere has stayed the same for over a decade. It is deliberately voyeuristic and distant. Goodreads tells me that the Virgin Suicides gets tagged as 'girlhood' more than any other novel on the platform; the book and its film adaptation have had a cult online fanbase of young women for over a decade. But both are narrated by a cast of male characters; we barely see the central, insular group of sisters outside of dreams, rumours, windows and the 'coquette' craze on TikTok was borrowed wholesale from a decade-old Tumblr subculture, whose prime influence was the haunted paedophilia-Americana of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. If you're a young girl in this sphere then you're probably edgily imagining yourself as the abductee – but the whole point of the novel is that it obscures the abductor's criminal motivations through a veil of aesthetic-first literary devices. The manosphere, by contrast, is fundamentally anti-aesthetic. It puts its real-world grievances and ambitions before its visual concerns. Men do not participate in the collaborative collaging that made 'girlhood' into a nebulous vibe and Lana Del Rey into an all-purpose political tool. Nobody's living vicariously through the MS Paint cartoons of Pepe the Frog; Andrew Tate's livestreaming backgrounds have made no impression on the current generation of interior designers. You can write its acolytes off as political undesirables after a single glance. The girlosphere is a different kind of entity. There was nothing inherently malevolent about it in the beginning, but its escapist foundations have made it into a potentially sinister tool. Young women come to seek aesthetic pleasure and end up ricocheting over the political spectrum. The mainstream fashion devotees of the 'girlhood' aesthetic pose it as a symbol of reclaimed sisterhood, but this is the most sinister proposition of all, like something out of the Stepford Wives. It has only resounded for so long among young women online because its creepy voyeurism puts it at arm's length from the real female experience. You don't have to think with empathy when you mix modern-day policy and the vibes of a fictional middle America; you don't have to consider the practicalities of your own body when you spend all day collaging together old photos of Slavic supermodels. And once you enter the girlosophere, you can never leave. Future generations will have to endure this too: a ballet flat stomping on a human face, forever. [See more: On freedom vs motherhood] Related
Hindustan Times
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Who is Azealia Banks? Rapper accuses Conor McGregor of ‘sexually harassing' her by sending ‘unsolicited' nudes
Azealia Banks has accused former UFC champion Conor McGregor of sending explicit photographs in her private DMs. The rapper also claimed that he threatened her not to tell anyone. Rapper Azealia Banks called out Conor McGregor for his alleged gross behavior on X.(Instagram/azealiabanksforever) Sharing the images on X, the 212 hitmaker called out the MMA fighter for sending 'unsolicited nudes.' The two screenshots she attached allegedly showed the direct messages shared by McGregor on Instagram, Toronto Sun reported. 'How you gonna send a b***h a some crooked d**k pics then threaten her not to tell. @TheNotoriousMMA n***a do you know who the f**k I am? This is HARAM,' Banks wrote. In the images, McGregor is seen fully naked in what looks like a closet. This comes after he recently hinted at his possible run for president in Ireland. She added, 'Like how are you really going to sexually harass me with the potato farmer d**k then threaten me not to tell???? Honey…… ain't u trying to be the president of Ireland what is it giving fam? Use some f*****g sunscreen damn.' Also Read: Azealia Banks leaks Conor McGregor's nudes he allegedly sent her in DMs: 'This is haram' Who is Azealia Banks? Born on May 31, 1991, in Harlem, New York City, Banks is the youngest of three sisters. Her father died due to pancreatic cancer when she was just two years old. Her mother was working at a retail store on 57th Street. In a March 2023 interview with Dazed magazine, Banks shared that she would rather be more like a Dominican because she was raised by Dominican caretakers, since her mother paid them 'couple thousand dollars and just disappear for five weeks.' Although she did grow up with dreams of being famous, Banks was initially interested in becoming an actor and not a rapper. She even started studying acting at LaGuardia when she was 14. She felt disappointed when she was not able to land a show on Nickelodeon. Interestingly, Banks started rapping just because she 'had some boyfriend who rapped, and all his friends rapped, too,' she told Dazed. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Azealia Banks has total earnings of $3 million. Some of her popular singles include 212, Liquorice, and Yung Rapunxel. In 2014, she released her much-awaited debut album, Broke with Expensive Taste. During her career in the music industry, she has received several awards, including the New Style Icon at the Billboard Awards in 2011 and the Best Single at the 2012 Urban Music Awards. Also Read: Conor McGregor reacts amid backlash over 'kissing mystery woman' as fiancé Dee Devlin breaks silence Apart from her music career, Banks is famous for her public spats with celebrities like Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea, Erykah Badu, and Elon Musk. In February 2021, she said that she was engaged to Ryder Ripps but confirmed the following month that they had parted ways. FAQs: 1. Has Conor McGregor replied to Azealia Banks' claims? As of now, he has not shared any statement regarding the matter. 2. What did Azealia Banks say about Conor McGregor? She claimed on X that he sent a few explicit photographs to her and even threatened her not to tell anyone. 3. How many children does Conor McGregor have? He and Dee Devlin have four children.
