"While many of Tate’s followers have criticized the removal of his accounts, citing it as censorship of free speech, there is a definitive argument that Tate’s content is incredibly harmful," Emma Matzen writes in her opinion. Photo courtesy of Wikicommons.

Emma Matzen | Sept. 16, 2022 10:35 a.m.
Staff Writer

Andrew Tate has become a well-known and controversial figure online, specifically on TikTok for his brash statements that are intensely misogynistic and violent. 

Tate, 35, is a former kickboxer turned influencer. He was briefly on season 17 of Big Brother in 2016, though was later kicked-off from the show following the scruinity surrounding him online regarding homophobic and racist comments he made on his Twitter account, as well as the release of a video in which he beat a woman with a belt – whom he later said had consented to the act. 

 However, the more recent controversy regarding Tate involves his suffocating presence on social media app TikTok, where videos of him continuing to spread violently misogynistic rhetoric have gotten millions of views. His videos have received a lot of traction from men online – who have since involved themselves in Tate’s online scams, where he has been making millions of dollars off of a camgirl business online, that is allegedly not fully consensual. 

This is due to the human trafficking allegations involving Tate, as his home in Romania was searched for evidence reagarding trafficking and rape investigations. The investigation remains ongoing.

Tate’s online businesses don’t stop with dubious cam girl sites, however. He also has a website in which buyers can get an “online class” called “Hustler’s University,” in which participants pay a monthly fee and get lessons on cryptocurrency and dropshipping – though this is quite obviously a multi-level marketing scheme as those who recruit others for Hustler’s University will receive a commission. As of this August, Tate has been banned from Facebook and Instagram for violating their rules against hate speech, as well as being suspended from his YouTube account. He recently deleted his Twitch channel.. 

While many of Tate’s followers have criticized the removal of his accounts, citing it as censorship of free speech, there is a definitive argument that Tate’s content is incredibly harmful. Extremely young viewers have been getting exposed to Tate’s videos on TikTok, and have begun repeating many of the sentiments he’s shared online. 

Tate’s commentary on how “women are inferior to men” has spread to children, who repeat these beliefs at school. In a widely spread Reddit post on r/Teachers by a now deleted user who teaches at a middle school, a post describes their male students refusing to read an article because it was written by a woman. 

But this is just grazing the surface of Andrew Tate’s controversy and atrocious behavior both on and offline. As evidenced here, it’s obvious that Tate’s presence online has become a huge stain on younger and older viewers alike. Tate’s videos on TikTok have been viewed over 11 billion times at the time of writing. Tate has also featured on many far-right podcasts, continually spreading his radical ideologies on how women should be treated. 

It should be noted, that among his previous statements, Tate said on his Twitter account in September of 2017, following the popularity of the #MeToo movement, that women should “bear some responsibility” for being raped. 

Moving forward, I can only hope that Tate’s presence online is continually shut down and that his accounts can all be terminated. While his videos will never truly disappear from the Internet, it is incredibly important that we stop this hate as soon as possible, lest we take several steps back as a society when it comes to equality, acceptance, and kindness. 

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