While the masculinist influencer could be sidelined given his legal setbacks, will the ideas he defends suffer the same fate?
The legal setbacks never end for Andrew Tatethe former kickboxing world champion who became an influencer on social networks, and who does not hesitate to claim his “misogyny”.
Monday evening, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in Romaniaan arrest warrant was issued against them by the British authorities, following allegations of “sexual assault”, in a case dating back to the period 2012-2015.
The brothers, who have dual British and American nationality, deny the accusations.
The civil case against Andrew Tate is, so to speak, the final blow to the influencer. In December 2022, he was arrested with his brother in the company of two Romanian women for rape, human trafficking and the formation of a criminal gang with the aim of sexually exploiting women.
Although officially indicted by the Romanian prosecutor’s office on the basis of these four charges, the influencer continues to deny any wrongdoing.
Andrew Tate, who has 8.9 million subscribers on toxic masculinity and misogyny. Their goal is often to fight against gender equality.
“It went viral extremely quickly and was really successful in attracting men to its ideology,” Cécile Simmons, head of research at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), told Euronews.
“But these conceptions, when they seduce certain men, will not disappear with him.
Mysogyny did not wait for Andrew Tate
While misogyny is deeply rooted in human history, the ideology has recently found fertile ground on the web, where frustrated men can come together to vent their frustration and anger at a world that escapes them, and women in particular.
“The manosphere, this collection of misogynistic communities online, has been active for a long time, although there has been greater awareness of it since 2016, when Donald Trump was elected,” said Cécile Simmons.
“In recent years, influencers have really helped spread misogynistic ideas even more widely, and Andrew Tate is one of the leading figures,” she added.
“What characterizes him is the speed with which he amassed followers, and he did it by combining misogyny and speeches of personal development, thus building a real company”, with well-rehearsed marketing.
Many observers believe that Tate capitalized on online misogyny and brought it into the mainstream. Despite his run-ins with the law, the influencer continues to exert a permanent influence, particularly among younger people.
In 2022, the same year Tate was arrested in Romania, the influencer was banned from most social media platforms due to his toxic messages towards women. While he remains banned on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, his profile was reinstated on X by Elon Musk and is currently active.
But, even while being banned from social networks, his content continued to circulate online, said Cécile Simmons, citing a 2022 report which revealed that “his fans continued to share his content and repost it.”
Andrew Tate made babies
Andrew Tate’s setbacks could deal a heavy blow to the manosphere, but will probably not spell its end.
In reality, other influencers could take advantage of this to gain popularity, for those who think that feminism is bad for men, that they are only victims of a woman-centered world and that consent is superfluous , writes the DSI.
The type of ideology Tate defends is becoming more and more common, according to Cécile Simmons.
“Everyone focuses on Andrew Tate because he was very popular for a while, but in fact we forget that there are lots of other men who have avenues to promote these problematic ideas,” she declared.
The feelings of frustration and anger felt by men around the world have not gone away,” she continues.
“The thing to say is that there are a lot of Andrew Tates. They may not say the exact same things, they may not be as violent as him, but there are “A lot of influencers agree, arguing that women who go to the gym are promiscuous, and that men should control their women.”
“I think there’s a lot of resentment among young men, and I think other influencers are now trying to exploit that same discontent,” she added.