Is this the end of Andrew Tate?
Andrew Tate is a former kickboxer. Actually, this is a very puny way to say it. Emory Andrew Tate III is a businessman, a social media personality, and a former professional kickboxer. His origins are American-British. Once his kickboxing career ended, he started offering paid courses, and memberships through a website he created. Later on, he rose to fame as an internet celebrity, as whom he promoted an “ultra masculine, ultra luxurious lifestyle”. He is a self-described misogynist, and his controversial comments on his website and other social media platforms have led to him being banned from them. In December 2022, he, along with his brother and two women were arrested in Romania on suspicions of human trafficking, and forming an organized crime group. It is alleged by Romanian police that this group formed by them coerced victims into creating paid pornography for social media.
Andrew Tate has been banned from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, with the bans being put in place because of a campaign which touted Tate as a person who was an influencer who was also harmful, and damaging to his audience, which was primarily young. Immediately aer the bans, Tate closed his Hustlers University affiliate marketing program. This was incidentally the program which helped him gain a major part of his followers, and which also gave its members the opportunity to earn commission convincing more new people to sign up to this scheme, whilst being encouraged to post videos of Tate across social media to get more referrals. Exclusion of Tate has been seen as controversial, so social media spokespersons have released statements on the ban on Tate.
Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have all permanently removed Tate’s official accounts from the social media platforms for violating the company’s policies on dangerous organizations and individuals. As per a TikTok spokesperson, “Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok”Before he was banned, Tate had already garnered 4.7mn followers on Instagram. This shows just how influential this person was, probably is, and how easily he could have misused this power of his to influence the audience negatively. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, and the power of influence over the people, that of grabbing the attention of the people, is the greatest of them all. It just depicts what a devil Tate was for all the moral people out there! And to think that his audience majorly comprised young adults! It essentially means that he was corrupting the future. “With great power comes great responsibility”, and Tate could not commit to this responsibility of making the world a better place.
As per Tate, however, he was simply playing a comedic character in his content. He apparently “…in the last two weeks…dedicated over one million dollars to charities supporting women”. His statements 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 races and genders how to respect one another for years to come”. In his conclusion, he said that being a mixed race child raised by a single mother in all the disadvantages of the old world, he is a fantastic role model for all. This when he had earlier said- “Me being alive on the internet will allow me to lead men in a very positive direction…banning me and deleting me leaves a black hole…it’s me or nobody”, while he was still out there.
Well, all his views and preferences and influences have led to him not only facing a ban, but also to ultimately do things he will definitely regret. The people and also the jury are convinced of his involvement in the allegations of human trafficking due to the character that he has projected in front of the people, and this comes as no surprise to them. While he and his brother have both denied wrongdoing, they have been denied bail and have lost the legal appeal to end detention in Romania, meaning all four of them- the brothers and their two alleged accomplices, are to be held in preventive detention for the full 30 days to which they were remanded. This coming aer the ban is most definitely not the best for Tate, if not the worst. With all the things going downhill for him, it might as well be said that this pretty much seems to be the end of Andrew Tate. But then again, life is uncertain, and who knows what destiny has in store for the guy! Who knows, maybe he’ll change and make the world a better place hence? Only time will tell.
Aayushmaan Jha
BTech Electrical Engineering IIT Mandi
