Andrew Tate Banned From Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
Former kickboxer and semi-professional misogynist Andrew Tate has been booted from Facebook and Instagram as a consequence of violating their content policy, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to Rolling Stone.
Tate, who boasted over 4.6 million followers on Instagram, has achieved viral fame by becoming an online “lifestyle” guru who panders to disaffected men looking for someone to blame for their problems — primarily by feeding his audience a consistent diet of woman-hating slop, and the promise that by giving him money they too will become rich enough to look down on people who drink un-sparkling water. His content has exploded on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, fueled by a loyal following of young fans who are absorbing his every word.
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Days after being banned from Facebook and Instagram, Tate was also barred from TikTok. And on Monday, Aug. 22, YouTube announced that it had disabled Tate’s channels for “multiple violations” of its community guidelines and terms of service, such as its hate speech policy. Additionally, Tate’s Twitch channel is no longer accessible on the platform, in its place a notice indicates that the channel was “closed by the user.”
A YouTube spokesperson told Bloomberg, “If a channel is terminated, the uploader is unable to use, own or create any other YouTube channels.” Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Tate said, “There is a running contradiction in today’s society where men are encouraged to speak and be open/honest with how they feel but are generally met with a negative response to their truth… Banning Andrew Tate from these platforms might seem the answer, but it isn’t that simple. Removing Tate’s voice doesn’t allow for a kinder hate-free society.” (YouTube and its parent company, Google, did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment, nor did a rep for Tate.)
Twitch recieved criticism for being slow to respond to claims that Tate’s content violated their established community guidelines. If Tate deleted his own account it would make it more difficult for Twitch to prevent him from appearing on the channels of other streamers, as it is unclear if Twitch can retroactively ban an individual that no longer has an active account on the platform. Twitch did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
Tate is well known for speaking about women in particular in violent and degrading terms, tweeting in 2017 that women should “bear some responsibility” for being raped and discussing in one podcast episode how he accidentally broke a woman’s jaw in a bar fight. He has commented that he would threaten a woman with a machete and “grip her by the neck”if she ever accused him of cheating, and stated that 18-19 year olds are more attractive than 25 year olds because they’ve “been through less dick.”
When reached for comment last week after his bans from Facebook and Instagram, Tate said the posts were made in jest, and that it was a “character” he was playing that has been taken out of context. “The media is spinning a false image of me, on repeat, and instagram bowing to pressure is a massive shame,” Tate said as part of a lengthy statement to Rolling Stone. “Somehow I am the villain, when all of my posts were bible verses and charitable donations.”
Throughout his career, Tate has been dogged by controversy. Following a brief kickboxing career, Tate was kicked off the U.K. reality show Big Brother in 2016, after videos emerged of him beating a woman with a belt, though both Tate and his ex, who said she was the person in the video, later said the encounter was consensual.
Tate and his brother Tristain then pivoted towards recruiting girls to participate in a webcam modeling scheme, including using “sob-stories” to trick men into giving them money. In interviews, Tate has indicated that he retains a majority of the profits made by the women he’s involved with, and has referred to his business as a “total scam.” In a now-removed section of his website, Tate bragged about his job being to “get women to fall in love” with him, in order to convince them to join his camming business. The webpage states that 50 percent of the women now in Tate’s employment were at one point in a relationship with him, and that none had cammed before meeting him.
In videos posted online Tate says he moved to Romania partially due to their relatively lax law enforcement around sexual assault, and continued to run his businesses from there. In April of 2022 police raided his home in connection with a sex trafficking investigation after an woman claimed she was being held captive in Tate’s home. In a post that appeared to address the raid Tate included the caption “Officer…l think we can all agree that bitches love to lie.” As of April of 2022 that investigation is still ongoing. Tate also manages a subscription based website called Hustlers University which purports to educate paid subscribers on various ways to make money.
This story was updated 8/22/22 at 5:39 p.m. ET with news of Tate’s ban from YouTube.
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