Andrew Tate is a former professional kickboxer turned business magnate and social media influencer. In the mid-2000s, Tate rose to prominence as a professional kickboxer and by 2012 was one of the top kickboxers in the world. Since, Tate has retired from kickboxing. Following his kickboxing career, Tate guested on Big Brother and made his original money running a cam site online. Since then, he’s diversified and owns a variety of properties and businesses, making him, at least, a millionaire, though it’s unclear what his net worth is exactly. In the modern day, Tate runs a service called Hustler’s University, a platform where people can pay Tate for instructional lessons on making money and interacting with women. Surrounding his business ventures is Tate’s status as an influencer and celebrity, with him becoming one of the biggest (if not the biggest) ‘redpill’ figure in the world. Online, the ‘redpill’ is a Matrix reference where the main character, Neo, early on in the movie is given a choice between taking the ‘blue pill’ and the ‘red pill’ where the blue pill would see him go back to sleep and return to the safety of the matrix while taking the red pill would open his eyes. Today, ’taking the red pill’ is a core part of the manosphere, which is essentially a movement that promotes masculinity and men’s rights and is often accused of being misogynistic and anti-feminist. The red pill, in the context of the manosphere, is the idea that men need to open their eyes and see how society is dominated by women and feminism and is biased against men. Tate espouses many redpill and manosphere talking points, has a traditional view on gender, and has on many occasions been accused of being anti-feminist, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic, all traits that are often associated with folks in the manosphere or who’ve taken the red pill. Okay, so, why is the world so obsessed with what a former pro kickboxer, businessman, and social media influencer thinks? Well, in part, because of how massive his following is. Regardless of his social media bans, Tate is an unbelievably popular and influential character, particularly in the context of young men, and his words and advice are often taken quite seriously. The other part is the advice Tate gives to these young men. Encouraging them to, in the eyes of many, treat women poorly and reinforce outdated gender stereotypes, like the idea that women ought to be chaste virgins that stay at home to cook and clean for their man, their provider, their caretaker. Of course, Tate’s ideology is a lot more complicated than what can be explained in just a few words, but that’s the general idea. In 2022, Andrew Tate was banned from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, and this all happened, essentially, all at once. It’s not exactly clear if there was one particular piece of content available on all those platforms that got him banned, which is why many free speech advocates oppose the ban, arguing it felt like major social media companies simply didn’t like what Tate had to say generally so they banned him. Naturally, that’s the narrative that Andrew Tate himself seems to agree with: that social media companies didn’t like him speaking truth to power, so in order to try and curb his influence, they banned him. Following the ban, Tate released a video where he did take some accountability, too. Essentially, Tate argued that there are many clips of him out there stretching back to decades ago when he wasn’t nearly as famous. Back then, Tate argues, he didn’t take nearly as much care and caution when speaking, because he didn’t have anywhere near the platform he has today. For most, that’s fair enough when it comes to clips that are truly years or decades old, but many others point to countless interviews, podcasts, and streams online that happened in recent memory where Tate makes similar comments. In general, Tate’s defense of this commentary is that he’s joking or he’s being misunderstood or clipped out of context when it comes to the more modern instances of his more edgy comments. Even with his bans, though, Tate hasn’t left the public eye. He still posts on Twitter, he still appears in interviews and podcasts, and he even streams on the alternative streaming platform Rumble. Even with the bans, Tate continues to maintain his massive celebrity and popularity. For right-wing people, Tate’s persecution is yet another example of more ideologically leftist tech companies trying to squash dissent and ways of thinking different from the majority. For the other side, Tate is another example of a far-right figure espousing hateful views that ought not to have a platform or anywhere near the influence and reach he has. This brings us to the most recent drama surrounding Andrew Tate. In late December 2022, Tate was removed from his home in Romania, alongside his brother, and detained by the Romanian authorities. Tate was detained by the police in the context of an ongoing investigation into organized crime, human trafficking, and rape. The police described the situation as follows: they’re investigating a trafficking ring where the Tate brothers are thought to have manipulated women into relationships with them, after which the women are intimidated and coerced into performing sexual acts in order to make the Tates money online. According to the police, currently, six women have been identified who were exploited in such a manner. As far as the rape claim goes, one woman has been identified to have been forced to perform sexual actions on behalf of the Tate brothers’ moneymaking operation. Of course, right now, this is just an investigation, and the above claims have been proven. Nor is there more evidence available about what happened. After the original 24-hour detention of the Tates, a Romanian judge ruled that the detention will be extended for an additional 30 days while the Romanian police continue their investigation into the Tate brothers. As of now, no more information has been released outside of the detention and the fact that the investigation into the Tates is ongoing. For many, this investigation is rather ironic. Andrew Tate, on many occasions, has discussed the reasons for his move to Romania. One of these reasons comes down to the fact that the legal system in Romania is supposedly a lot friendlier to the Tates where they don’t have to worry about women making false claims against them in order to cancel them or ruin their lives. While whether or not that’s true, and how much that happens, is disputed, the Tate brothers being picked up by the Romanian police for sex trafficking and rape is quite the scandal if you believe that Andrew Tate moved to Romania, at least in part, to avoid this kind of legal trouble. Right before Tate’s encounter with the police, Andrew Tate made headlines feuding with climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter. Greta made headlines a few years when, as a child she gave an impassioned speech on climate change, calling out specifically the older generation that, in her eyes, was destroying the world for young people to be forced to deal with later on in life. Now, Greta is 19 and remains an environmental activist. So, how does Greta Thunberg relate to Andrew Tate? Well, on Twitter, Tate tweeted at Greta. The gist of the tweet was that Andrew owns 33 cars, and he wanted to get Greta’s email so he could send her a list of every vehicle he owns and information on his ’enormous emissions’ courtesy of those cars. Put simply, it was yet another instance of Twitter drama. In response, Greta tweeted out at Andrew Tate that he could, in fact, reach her by email, and she told him to email her at ‘smalldickenergy@getalife.com’ which did not please Tate. According to the internet, this was a massive own for Greta that made the much older Andrew Tate look silly. For others, the fact that Greta implied her own email was ‘smalldickenergy@getalife.com’ made it more of a self-own. Then, these tweets started a larger conversation about whether or not Greta was bodyshaming Andrew Tate and whether or not that kind of comment was acceptable. In general, though, most think of the interaction as relatively silly Twitter drama. However, the story doesn’t end there. In response to Greta, after her response, Tate released a short video where he continued to poke fun at Thunberg. In the video, Tate is seen receiving a pizza delivery. You can clearly make out the pizza box, and it was clear that Tate had ordered pizza from a Romanian chain and thus was likely to be at his home in Romania. This may sound inconsequential, but soon after he posted this video he was detained by the Romanian authorities for all the reasons described above. Accordingly, Tate immediately made headlines. The idea was that Greta Thunberg got Andrew Tate detained by exposing his location. That Romanian authorities were monitoring Tate’s social media and waiting for confirmation he was in Romanian before taking him in. However, there just isn’t any evidence to support this claim. By all accounts, considering the Romanian police had an ongoing investigation into Tate, most argue that the police had other ways of monitoring Tate’s location and wouldn’t need to wait for a social media post. So, the fact that Tate feuded with Thunberg right before being detained was no more than a coincidence.
