Social-media companies will no longer provide a platform for a notorious misogynist who argues that women are the property of men. Andrew Tate — known by his fans as “the king of toxic masculinity” — has finally been banned from TikTok for violating its policy barring “content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanizes an individual or a group,” the company told the Washington Post. Tate has been banned from Facebook and Instagram for violating Meta’s policy on “dangerous individuals and organizations.”
Originally a kickboxer, Tate made his way into the spotlight as a Big Brother cast member in 2016; he was kicked off the show after a video surfaced of him hitting a woman with a belt. (The two later said his actions had been consensual.) These days, Tate, 35, is best known as an incel self-help guru behind a shocking amount of blatantly misogynistic content, which he encourages his army of angry male subscribers to share widely online. Videos of Tate’s most controversial statements — including going into detail about acting violently against women, comparing them to property or animals, and supporting rape — have been watched on TikTok 11.6 billion times; before he was banned, he had 4.7 million followers on Instagram. You won’t be surprised to learn that his hatred is not reserved solely for women; there are plenty of videos in which Tate makes racist, homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic, and classist remarks.
Raised in Britain, Tate now lives in Romania, a move he claims was partially motivated by his assumption that police there are less likely to pursue sexual-assault allegations. He runs Hustler’s University, which is described as “an online money-focused community providing education and coaching to over 100,000 students” on its website.
As Tate’s following has steadily grown in recent months, activist organizations including Hope Not Hate and White Ribbon have called for his social accounts to be banned, and influencers shared infographics arguing his removal and guides for how teachers can talk to their students about Tate. Tate has been banned from Twitter since 2017, after he tweeted, in response to sexual-assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, “If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must [bear] some responsibility.” Yet banning Tate might not be enough to stop his influence; the Post points out that many of his videos have been posted by fan accounts. A spokesperson for TikTok told the Post, “Our investigation into this content is ongoing, and we continue to remove violative accounts and videos that promote misogyny and other hateful behavior.”