Once known as a professional kickboxer and struggling reality TV star, Andrew Tate has become almost impossible to avoid on social media.
It is a topic of conversation on every major platform. Major creators have either talked about Tate or featured him in their live streams and podcasts, often in an attempt to counter his hyper-misogynistic stances on women and modern masculinity. Teacher-oriented online spaces discuss how to deal with affected students.
Tate, 35, continues to go viral widely for his extreme remarks: comparing women to property, graphically describing how he would attack a woman for accusing her of cheating, and claiming that men prefer to date 18- and 19-year-olds. older women outperform women in their mid-20s because the former have had sex with fewer men. Tate argues that because they are less experienced at dating, men can “make an impression” on teenagers.
In a statement to NBC News, Tate described himself as a “success coach” who plays an “online character.” He added that he “does a lot of videos glorifying women” and that his training is about teaching men to “avoid toxic people altogether.” Tate said she advises her followers to avoid “low-value people,” including “toxic men.”
“It has nothing to do with misogyny,” Tate said. “It’s just about good people and bad people. My mother is my hero.”
The videos on TikTok convey the deep sense of division that Tate has created online: Many are igniting his messages, while others are parroting his talking points. According to the company’s hashtag page, TikTok videos tagged #AndrewTate have been viewed 12.7 billion times.
This is one of the more sudden rises to fame seen on the internet. It’s an active base of ardent supporters drawn to Tate’s messaging and a well-intentioned — some might say opportunistic — movement to oppose Tate’s rise while simultaneously jumping into one of them. the most viral topics of the moment.
Even some influencers who have come under similar criticism for their influence on young men singled out Tate. Controversial YouTuber Jake Paul, who has been criticized for making ad-laden videos targeting children, spoke about Tate’s influence on a younger audience on a recent episode of his brother Logan Paul’s podcast, Impulsive. Pauls did not interview Tate, but hinted at Jake Paul, who has continued his boxing career in recent years, fighting Tate in an upcoming match.
But even that attention creates momentum for Tate online as a flashpoint in modern internet culture that some creators refuse to encourage.
“Such men don’t want to learn. They don’t really want to argue,” creator Drew Afualo said in a video he shared on his TikTok account last month. “They just want a platform to spew their venom. … I don’t put them on my podcast. I don’t put them on any platform.”
“Men like that don’t want to learn. They don’t even want to argue.”
– the creator of tiktok drew afualo
When first reached for comment, Tate directed NBC News to a July 19 YouTube video titled “THE TATES Addresses ALL Rumors.” In the email, Tate denied allegations of misogyny, involvement in a human-trafficking investigation in Romania and running a multi-level marketing scheme through the online program Hustler University 2.0.
“None of that is true,” Tate said. “I get a lot of hate and my family is at risk.”
In the video, part of the Tate Speech podcast, Tate and her brother Tristan Tate responded to accusations of sexism and misogyny.
“I can’t deal with it. I can’t fathom a world where there’s some fat guy on the internet who thinks I’m a misogynist. [expletive] and all the women love me and not him,” Andrew Tate quipped during the episode. “I care a lot. I cannot express in human words how much I care. I am a master of rhetoric. I know English, which is almost unmatched on the Internet. I have the ability to transfer my thoughts through space-time into other people’s minds, but I can’t put into words how much I hate and can’t handle being a femme fatale.”
Afualo, who has posted videos pushing misogynistic talking points by verbally abusive men like Tate, has discussed Tate in several videos since earlier this year. In a TikTok video from last month, he addressed the “incessant” requests to interview Tate on his “Commentary Section” podcast. By allowing them to use her platform, she said, she would “do nothing” for her followers.
Danisha Carter, a creator known for her videos calling out problematic behavior, commented that she agreed with Afualo’s video. To avoid further discussion of Tate.
Other fanbases have encouraged their creators to follow suit, and some have called for an end lends its platform to podcast hosts by bringing Tate on their shows. The vast majority of podcasts Tate guest-hosts are hosted by men.
“These podcasts inviting Andrew Tate to speak (even if their intention is to embarrass him) are part of the problem” One Twitter user said.
Tate has been involved in some impactful communities for several years. Formerly a professional kickboxer, he had a brief stint as a reality TV star on the cast of Big Brother in 2016. He was fired from the show after The Sun magazine published a video of Tate beating a woman with a belt.
She received more backlash in 2017 when she tweeted that she “should bear some responsibility” for sexual assault, among other widely criticized statements that blamed women for the violence and harassment women received at the height of the #MeToo movement. Twitter permanently suspended his account that year.
An ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, Tate has developed a following in far-right pockets of social media and met Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in August 2017. After being banned from Twitter, Tate made several appearances on Infowars shows and began to associate with other prominent far-right figures. “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich describes Tate and his brother Tristan Tate as “friends.” Tristan Tate, co-host of the Tate Speech podcast with Andrew Tate, supports similar views to his brother’s. On Instagram, the brothers shared a lavish lifestyle of international travel, luxury cars and a seemingly endless supply of cigars.
While he gained a reputation in far-right circles, Tate was also accused of violence against many women. On The Pomp Podcast this month, he openly discussed hitting a woman and breaking her jaw during a bar fight. He said he “went to court” after being charged with “bodily harm” but “got out of it in the end”. He said that he is innocent. In a now-deleted YouTube video, Tate said he was “…not a rapist” but “probably 40% of the reason” he moved to Romania was because the police were less likely to investigate sexual assault cases. In another video, Tate said he was being investigated for allegedly assaulting a woman in England and had been detained for two days, according to The Guardian. He denied the allegations of abuse.
This was reported by the Tate brothers According to the Mirror, they ran a self-proclaimed “total scam” business in Romania that used cam models – usually performers who broadcast sexual acts via private video chat – to lure men into sending money to the brothers.
The brothers’ mansion in Romania was raided in April after police received a tip about an American woman being held against her will as part of a human trafficking investigation. Both Andrew and Tristan Tate were brought in for questioning and no arrests were made. Andrew Tate said in a YouTube video that the accusation was based on a tip from the boyfriend of a woman who attended a party at Tates’ home. They have denied any involvement in a human trafficking ring.
“My house was pranked with a false story, just like many people online were subjected to false police calls,” Tate said. “No one was home and no charges have been filed. I am completely innocent of this disgusting allegation. I don’t hurt people.”
It’s not entirely clear when Tate went from pioneering “alpha male” influencer to viral sensation, but Google Trends data shows that searches for him, both online and on YouTube, began to increase in May before a spike in early July.
The Tate’s current fame overshadows its actual online footprint. He has 4.6 million Instagram followers and 744 thousand YouTube subscribers. Videos posted from Tate’s actual account on TikTok, where videos of him or her are ubiquitous, rarely go viral. The videos, which often feature snippets of his inflammatory comments about women or masculinity, garnering millions of views, are usually posted by fan accounts dedicated to him.
Tate’s newfound stardom coincides with his attempt to promote his subscription-based online course, Hustler University 2.0, which many describe as a pyramid scheme. Tate’s website bills the program as “a community where I and dozens of War Room soldiers will teach YOU exactly how to make money.” Tate charges a monthly subscription fee of $49 to access the program, which recommends that others earn extra income by referring them and posting videos on social media to promote the course. Subscribers may pay an “affiliate fee” for referrals.
Tate denied running a pyramid scheme and said he ran “the same affiliate program as Amazon, Spotify or others.” He told NBC News that he was closing the program.
Many of the TikTok videos are posted by teenagers, claiming that users have made thousands of dollars within weeks of subscribing to the course. One user who said he was 16 years old reported making over $1,500 in about 2 1/2 weeks of lessons. Hustler’s University TikTok account recently posted a video of a subscriber claiming to have earned $2,000 in his first two weeks after joining the course at the age of 15.
As paying subscribers flooded TikTok with Tate’s videos, popular creators tried to confront her misogynistic remarks. Instead, they gave him a bigger platform to build his profile and humiliate women.
during appearance On the “BFFs” Podcast — co-hosted by Dave Portnoy, Josh Richards and Brianna LaPaglia — Tate’s insistence that the men’s girlfriends owe OnlyFans profits because “it’s hers” was too extreme even for the accused Portnoy. sexual misconduct by several women (NBC News has not confirmed their accounts, and Portnoy has denied any wrongdoing).
A live debate between Tate and popular Twitch streamers xQc, Adin Ross, and Trainwreck turned into an argument about women driving. Snippets of the argument later went viral.
Fans slammed YouTuber Noel Miller for defending Tate’s positions on a recent episode of his podcast Tiny Meat Gang, which he co-hosts with Cody Ko, sparking an online debate about Tate.
“By doing this, Tate created an army of people pushing his content because they were financially motivated,” TikTok creator Ben Leavitt noted in a video. “And that’s exactly why Andrew Tate is a walking meme. He knows when he’s saying crazy polarizing stuff… it’s going to make for amazing clips that get millions of impressions and millions of dollars for his course.”
Instead of serious discussion, a growing group of TikTok users are trying to counter Tate’s growing influence with derision. TikTok is full of cross-edits of Tate’s most divisive rants and videos mocking his tough stance on masculinity.
For creators like Afualo, even memes give burners like Tate what they need most to maintain their influence: attention.
“If you let them scream into the void, they’ll have no choice but to go back into the sewers they came from,” Afualo said in a TikTok video. “There’s no point in me talking about it because I’ve got bigger fish to fry.”