*TW violence and homophobia*
Meta has banned controversial influencer and UK Big Brother contestant Andrew Tate from Facebook and Instagram for violating its policies.
Updated: As of August 22, TikTok has followed Meta and Twitter’s lead by banning Andrew Tate from the service.
In a statement to the Washington Post, TikTok said Andrew Tate’s account was removed for breaking rules on “content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanizes an individual or a group.”
Also today, a YouTube channel associated Tate has been disabled, as Google’s video website joins the growing list of social media platforms taking action against the influencer and self-described misogynist in the last week.
YouTube said that it terminated channels associated with Tate over “multiple violations” of its community guidelines and its terms of service, including its hate speech policy.
“If a channel is terminated, the uploader is unable to use, own or create any other YouTube channels,” said Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokesperson.
At the time of writing, an account associated with Tate remains on one major social media platform: Amazon.com Inc.’s video livestreaming site Twitch.
Original story:
Former kickboxer turned-influencer Andrew Tate has been banned from both Facebook and Instagram, Meta has confirmed (August 19).
At the point of his removal, Tate’s Instagram account had amassed 4.7 million followers, a sharp increase from the one million he had back in June.
Tate became known to the public in 2016, after he appeared Big Brother in the U.K., however he was removed from the programme after a highly disturbing video surfaced online which appeared to show him attacking a woman with a belt.
He claimed the footage had been edited, calling the video “a total lie trying to make me look bad”.
In recent months particularly – as his social media reach and name has become more known – activists, public figures and multiple organisations have raised alarm bells, condemning Tate’s behaviour and calling him ‘a threat to women’ and ‘homophobic’.
**We’re not sharing any of the content here because much of what could now link to is highly distressing. As such, if this is the first you’re reading about it, we suggest you don’t go looking for clips if you are vulnerable and they are likely to be triggering.**
While others (like the video below, made by a teacher), say the messaging in his content is ‘affecting the minds of young men’ by teaching misogynistic behaviours to kids as young as 11.
if you have a son, a little brother, a nephew, etc y’all need to srsly be monitoring what kinds of content they’re consuming because this is so fucking scary pic.twitter.com/YuJGZ6kFJH
— mother earth🧃 (@nonbinarybooty) August 14, 2022
It’s worth school staff being aware of the name Andrew Tate at the start of the new school year. With 11 Billion views on TikTok he is spouting dangerous misogynistic and homophobic abuse daily & some of his views are from boys as young as 13.
— Kirsty (@TeacherBusy) August 9, 2022
Hunter Johnson, Chief executive of mental health charity The Man Cave, said that Tate’s viral videos were extremely concerning.
“They call his references ‘Tate-isms’. They’re literally using it as a social currency for banter, but also, disrespect,” he said.
“Often it is young men who feel like they’ve been ripped off, that they were entitled to attention, were entitled to, you know, particularly female attention, and they didn’t get it.”
“andrew tate is just empowering boys to be proud of their masculinity. yeah some things he says are extreme but it’s just satire, take a joke lol”
i guess his fans are just very into satire pic.twitter.com/dSsaNlecwj
— matt (@mattxiv) August 11, 2022
and they do this because it is profitable. 11.6 billion views on #andrewtate videos has a dollar sign next to it for tiktok, so the videos don’t get taken down regardless of how many “community guidelines” they violate.
— matt (@mattxiv) August 11, 2022
Meta, the parent company for both Facebook and Instagram, confirmed it had removed Tate’s official accounts for breaching the rules around dangerous organisations or individuals and that he was now banned from using either Facebook or Instagram.
Tate had previously been removed from Twitter after he made claims that women should ‘bear responsibility’ if they have been sexually assaulted.
His business account for Cobra Tate, which aims to teach followers how to ‘get fit,’ ‘get money’ and ‘get connected’, has also been removed from the social media platform, along with his main Insta and Facebook.
Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate, said of Mr Tate’s ban from Facebook and Instagram: “Tate poses a genuine threat to young men, radicalising them towards extremism misogyny, racism and homophobia.”
“We’ve provided significant evidence to the major social media platforms, including Meta, about his activity and why he must be removed.”
“We welcome Meta’s swift action to remove Andrew Tate and we’ll be putting pressure on TikTok to follow this example. They must act now to prevent further spread of these extremist views.”
While Ruth Davison, chief executive of women’s safety charity Refuge, said Meta had made the “right decision” in banning Mr Tate.
“This is the kind of decisive action needed to tackle the online radicalisation of young men towards a violently misogynistic worldview,” she said.
“The same kind of action is now needed outside of high-profile cases like this – we know that women are experiencing stalking, harassment and abuse online every day, often without so much as a response from social media companies.”
bittersweet feelings about andrew tate’s instagram ban pic.twitter.com/j1VPd8ojhg
— matt (@mattxiv) August 19, 2022