Andrew Tate: With misogyny and racism to a viral TikTok influencer

TikToker Andrew Tate is landing viral hit after viral hit. He is regularly misogynistic, homophobic and racist.

Hamburg – If you’re surfing the internet these days, you probably can’t get past him: Andrew Tate. The former kickboxing world champion circulates on all platforms and polarizes there with his statements. These are filled with hatred of women, racism and hate speech of all kinds. His content is booming, especially on TikTok. Many consider him extremely dangerous. That is the reason.

+++ Trigger warning! This article addresses violence against women and misogyny. +++

Andrew Tate goes viral with misogyny – who is he?

Who is Andrew Tate? Emory Andrew Tate is a 35-year-old British-American ex-kickboxer. In his active career as a professional athlete, he won the world championship title four times. However, he could not make a name for himself outside of the scene. In 2016 he appeared on Big Brother UK but was kicked out after two videos of him surfaced. In one he beat a woman with a belt, in another he asked a woman to count the bruises he was said to have given her. In 2017, he was banned from Twitter for racist and homophobic posts.

Andrew Tate has been gaining more and more notoriety over the past few months. There are currently a number of videos with Tate’s content circulating, especially on TikTok. His beliefs include that depression is not a real disease, women are owned by men, and women are partly responsible for rape. In total, the videos were viewed more than 11.6 billion times. In these clips, Andrew Tate presents himself like a life coach. The following video provides some vivid examples that illustrate the extent of Andrew Tate’s verbal blunders.

Why is Andrew Tate suddenly so popular? That lies information from The Guardians according to a sophisticated Pyramid Scheme (German: Schneeballsystem). Andrew Tate expels the so-called Hustler’s University. For 50 euros a month, Tate promises a luxurious life of fame, fortune and success. He is loud to his mostly male followers Guardians the mission to market Hustler’s University on social media and recruit new members. There is a commission for successful recruiting.

Andrew Tate is going viral with misogyny on a platform full of 13-year-olds

Here’s why Andrew Tate is so dangerous: Andrew Tate spreads his misogynist, homophobic and racist views on social media. While that alone makes him dangerous, it doesn’t set him apart from others of his kind, such as Donald Trump. With his Pyramid Scheme, however, Tate reaches an extremely young male target group.

A quarter of all TikTok users are between ten and 19 years old (via. mediabynature). Accordingly, Andrew Tate’s content ends up largely with adolescents who are still developing their characters and are therefore easier to influence in their views.

“Tate’s views have been labeled as extremely misogynistic by domestic violence charities, capable of radicalizing young men and boys and also causing harm offlinehe writes Guardians. Between the misogynistic content, however, there are always statements by him that one can easily agree with. For example, in one video he says that family and love are wonderful things for him.

TikTok’s algorithm does the rest: TikTok’s algorithm works extremely quickly. As soon as you stay a little longer on a post, you automatically get more similar content. In the case of Andrew Tate, with multiple accounts posting his videos, there is a veritable flood of misogyny on TikTok.

What is TikTok doing about it? Normally, TikTok would have to ban the content surrounding Andrew Tate. You violate the guidelines of the app several times. Because both misogynous content and accounts with stolen identities are prohibited. So far, however, TikTok seems to be doing very little about it. Some critics suspect that this is because the videos generate an extremely large amount of usage time and thus income.

Andrew Tate is going viral with misogyny – it’s not just dangerous online

Andrew Tate isn’t just dangerous on the internet: Andrew Tate flaunts his wealth on the Internet and keeps spreading hatred of women and hate speech of all kinds. What is quickly overlooked: he is not only dangerous online, as you can already guess from the violent videos with women. In 2019, police intervened after Andrew Tate drove home to a journalist who had reported badly about him. Another time the police investigated him for allegedly abusing a woman, which he denies.

Around the time that police in England were investigating his abuse, Andrew Tate left the country and emigrated to Romania. In a video, he explained that the reason is “about 40% likely” that the police there are less likely to prosecute rape. He added: “I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of ​​being able to do whatever I want. I like being free.”

In April 2022, the mansion of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan was raided by police in Romania after the US embassy gave a tip that a 21-year-old American woman was being held there. The Tate brothers were questioned and released after denying all allegations. The police later announced that they were now investigating alleged rape and human trafficking. The investigation is still ongoing.

Rubric list image: © Instagram: Cobratate (montage)