The Downfall Of Andrew Tate And Its Implications

Andrew Tate, a social media sensation for some time, has been banned from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. The bans were put in place because of a campaign that touted Tate as being damaging to his primarily young audience. Tate also closed his Hustlers University affiliate marketing program immediately after the bans took place.

The program, which helped Tate amass his large following, allowed members the opportunity to earn commission by signing up new people to the scheme, whilst being encouraged to post videos of Tate across social media to garner more referrals. The monthly fee for the course was $49, and Tate said the course had over 80,000 members.

Social media spokespeople released statements on Tate’s ban as his exclusion has been seen as controversial.

A spokesperson for Meta, which owns both Instagram and Facebook, said last week that the company removed Tate’s official accounts from the social media platforms for violating the company’s policies on dangerous organizations and individuals. The Meta spokesperson also confirmed that the ban is permanent. Tate had 4.7 million followers on Instagram before being dismissed.

A TikTok spokesperson also said that following an investigation by the platform, an account belonging to Tate has been permanently banned. TikTok is using software to identify and remove any further uploads of videos found to violate its Community Guidelines.

The platform will also flag specific content so it won’t be recommended to users’ “For You” feeds.

“Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok,” the TikTok spokesperson said. “Our investigation into this content is ongoing, as we continue to remove violative accounts and videos, and pursue measures to strengthen our enforcement, including our detection models, against this type of content.”

As mentioned YouTube also followed suit in banning channels associated with Andrew Tate, this included the channel TateSpeech, which had over 744,000 subscribers.

“We terminated channels associated with Andrew Tate for multiple violations of our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service, including our hate speech policy,” YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi said on Monday. “If a channel is terminated, the uploader is unable to use, own or create any other YouTube channels.”

Tate has claimed he was simply playing a comedic character in his content.

Tate told platform and publication LADbible: “It is very unfortunate that old videos of me, where I was playing a comedic character, have been taken out of context and amplified to the point where people believe absolutely false narratives about me.”

“In the last two weeks, I dedicated over one million dollars to charities supporting women. I posted this on Instagram, but Instagram ignored it. Internet sensationalism has purported the idea that I’m anti-women when nothing could be further from the truth.”

He continued: “This is simply hate mobs who are uninterested in the facts of the matter trying to personally attack me. They twist facts and produce fancy documents full of half truths and lies to attack people they don’t like.”

Tate’s statement also mentioned that he would “always have millions of fans around the world” and said his online platforms are a “beacon of light, teaching people of all genders and races how to respect one another for years to come”.

“Somehow I am the villain, when all of my posts were bible verses and charitable donations. Banning me only inspires more internet hate mobs and more division. This will become a weapon of attack for different points of view for the foreseeable future,” Tate added.

Tate concluded: “I am a mixed race man raised by a single mother. I suffered all of the disadvantages of the old world. I am a fantastic role model for all people, both male and female.”

Comparisons across social media have already begun as former UFC and MMA star Jake Shields commented on the ban on Twitter, “People are freaking out about young boys looking up to Andrew Tate but totally fine with young girls looking up to Cardi B and the Kardashians.”

“Tate’s main message is stop being lazy and making excuses and go work hard and get in shape and make money,” he added. “Cardi’s is go do drugs, f**k random men and go through life as a brain dead moron.”

The WAP singer responded to Shields once hearing about her name being brought up. “I’m married, I don’t smoke weed, I don’t pop pills, I don’t do coke,” Cardi wrote. “I’m a mom of 2 kids and I do a lot of charity work … but hey let me put cardi into it to defend a man who defend misogyny and rape.”

Key insight

Talking to Jeff Fayngor of the JLF Firm, who has been awarded the super lawyers rising star the last 3 years in a row, he sees a fuller picture of what is transpiring.

“We live in very different times. I think the issue we are often seeing is that people think these social media platforms are tantamount to the real world in regards to societal law. They are not. There is no legal precedent really for Tate against these companies. It’s their platform. Their terms of use. Theoretically, they have the autonomy to ban anyone they want as long as they can at the very least loosely prove that terms of use are being violated.”

“I think most people are aware it’s not just Andrew Tate that states these types of opinions across social media platforms.”

He added, “There have been more instances to count of very racist, sexist, and overall hate speech across numerous platforms without people being banned.”

“Tate was an aberration because of how far his reach spread, similar to the banning of Donald Trump.”

What Fayngor then mentioned was the potential implications around Hustlers University and Tate’s businesses.

“Our firm advocates for the little guy. A lot of firms make this claim but when push comes to shove they fold. Our firm talks the talk and has the cases and results to back it up. We are not afraid of a challenge and will go to bat for any case, big or small. When there are these big sensationalist cases oftentimes lawsuits come out of everywhere, sometimes just to follow the tide. I think that’s what we have to be on the lookout for now.”

He added, “It’s one thing to ban Tate off of social media but executing lawsuits is a whole other ball game.”

The impact of social media bans is powerful. Looking no further than the silencing of Donald Trump through his bans, it feels almost as if we haven’t heard from him in a long time. Tate will seemingly suffer the same fate however with the growth of web3 (a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics) and democratizing elements such as social media, technology could be a big game changer for Tate’s future.