The first time I ever heard the name “Andrew Tate” was when a video of him appeared on my TikTok 'for you page'. While answering questions in an interview-style format, Tate shared his opinion on the online pornographic platform, OnlyFans, and discussed whether he would be comfortable having a partner with an OnlyFans account. In his response, Tate stated that he would only be comfortable with her starting an OnlyFans if he could have “control over it.” He later clarified that this did not mean producing or filming content, but rather taking most of the money that the content generated. The interviewer later asked why any woman would give him money that they made, to which Tate responded, “well, you are selling my product.”
Andrew Tate is an American-British content creator and former professional kickboxer who markets himself as a “self-help guru.” His content targets “the big rich manly man” with guided advice about controlling their lives; especially the parts of their lives that involve a romantic partner.
Tate currently resides in Romania after the UK police opened an investigation into him after allegations of sexual assault and human trafficking surfaced. In one video, he openly shared that he moved to Romania because of their relaxed sexual assault policies and stated, “I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.”
Tate rose to fame after participating in UK’s Big Brother season 17, but was eventually removed from the show after a video of him assaulting a woman with a belt surfaced.
From then on, Tate has been slowly making a name for himself online and found a platform on TikTok and youtube. Quite literally, Tate’s entire platform is built on hating women and teaching other men on how to do the same. He has become a popular name in niche right-wing extremist online communities, and has even collaborated with the highly controversial Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist and Sandy Hook-denier. With his growing online fame, Tate launched a business venture called “Hustler’s University,” an online course meant to teach “alpha males” how to dominate stock investing, crypto currency, and freelancing.
Tate was well on his way to right-wing stardom until he was banned from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook in late August for violating content policies.
The question is: why did it take these social media platforms so long to stop his hate speech from circulating?
By the time he was banned from TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, Tate was a reigning creator, generating an almost $250 million dollar net worth. Social media platforms not only aided in Tate’s fame, but basically handed it to him on silver platter.
An investigation done by Observer revealed that TikTok pushes misogynistic content out to young users, despite claiming to ban this type of hateful content. Tate's content, specifically, was pushed by TikTok’s algorithm onto the 'for you pages' of young people.
This investigation included an experiment where the Observer set up a fake TikTok account using the demographics of a young person. At first, this fake account's 'for you page' was filled with random clips including comedy, dog videos, and discussions about the mental health of men. After watching a few videos aimed at male TikTok users, the algorithm began pushing similar content aimed for men.
The account hadn’t event “liked” or searched for any of this content, but it was bombarded with it, especially with videos of Tate.
The dangers of this are unimaginable.
I didn't know who Andrew Tate was but my 12yo son did.
— The Bard 💗💜💙 (@Dragonfly_Darcy) August 20, 2022
Parents, they're coming for your boys. They market misogyny and racism to cishet white boys, in a package that seems appealing. Talk to your kids, have hard conversations. It's important.
Young boys are the biggest demographic at risk of being influenced by Tate. Young children do not understand what they are watching and will easily believe what an influencer tells them. In this case, Tate is creating a generation of young boys who will not only hate women, but might even actively try to harm them.
One simple search on Twitter of Tates name gives you thousands and thousands of tweets from men praising Tate for “helping a lost generation of boys become men.”
Jordan Peterson & Andrew Tate aren’t perfect men (far from it) — but they’re inspiring young men to not hate themselves & become rainbow-painted slaves to the neoliberal machine.
— An0maly (@LegendaryEnergy) September 30, 2022
That’s why the media hates them.
Sure, banning Tate from social media platforms might stop him from creating new content, but it hasn’t fixed any of the damage that has already been done. Other right-wing misogynistic content creators still reign free on social media platforms and are still indoctrinating a whole generation of young people. Social media platforms still bear the burden of reassessing their own ideals and following through on them.