Former kickboxer and multi-millionaire Andrew Tate has had his Instagram and Facebook accounts removed after sharing his misogynistic and offensive views online and for running Hustlers University – a pyramid scheme that claims to teach people how to get rich. Before his Instagram account was taken down, he had amassed more than four million followers, and while he doesn’t have his own official TikTok account and has never been banned from having one, content posted under the Andrew Tate hashtag has been viewed more than 13 billion times. One charity Sky News spoke to said the content it was most concerned about was still online. He first shot to fame in 2016 for being axed from reality TV show Big Brother after a video emerged of him assaulting a woman with a belt – a clip he claims was edited. He has since gained further notoriety on sites such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for his offensive comments, including some in which he suggested rape victims “bear some responsibility” for the assault and others where he referred to women as “property” in men. He also described how he would violently attack a woman for accusing him of cheating, saying he would “knife her out, punch her in the face and grab her by the throat”. As a result, concerns have been raised about its influence on young people, particularly young men. English teacher Kirsty Pole went viral on Twitter after urging fellow teachers to be aware of Tate and the “dangerous, misogynistic and homophobic abuse”. Speaking to Sky News, Ms Pole said some of the responses to her tweet were “truly shocking” and that she has heard from primary school teachers who have already spoken to children as young as 10 about Tate’s harmful views. “It’s a name teachers are getting to know more and more,” the 34-year-old said. Image: Tweet by Kirsty Pole “Schools in general these days tend to be quite welcoming, very inclusive, very nurturing places… I think people like him want to take us back to the 50s or 60s.” He added that he worries young boys are particularly vulnerable to Tate’s extreme views, saying: “They don’t already know who they should be, if they’re allowed to have feelings, if they’re allowed to cry or if they need a man.” What should you watch out for? Amid her warning about Tate, the Leicestershire-based teacher urged parents and teachers to pay close attention to what young people are discussing with their peers. “Listen to what they have to say because you’ll learn more by listening to them than by trying to do your own research on every misogynist on the internet,” he said. He added that the “biggest indicator” that children are being influenced by Tate is if they start using misogynistic language. “There’s a lot of specific language in the so-called manosphere. Comments like, she’s whipped or he’s wet, there’s a lot of language around it,” he said. “It’s much more the language that young people use with each other, that’s the main indicator.” In recent years, teachers have received more training on safeguarding and de-radicalisation, but Ms Pole believes training on misogyny needs to be introduced. “There’s not enough around misogyny yet. There’s got to be more out there. There’s still work to do on that, for sure,” he said. A government spokesman said: “We have made Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) a compulsory part of the school curriculum and have published guidance for schools on how to be alert to issues such as misogyny and stereotyping gender. “We’ve also provided resources to help teachers deliver this curriculum with confidence and work closely with schools, councils and other experts to understand and tackle the impact of harmful social media trends.” Image: Kirsty Pole What did Andrew Tate say about his views? While Tate did not respond to requests for a comment from Sky News, in a live event with Twitch’s Adin Ross on Friday, he was asked about comments from teachers on Reddit suggesting he influences their students to make misogynistic comments. He replied: “I know it’s not, a lot of the stuff that’s been taken, chopped up and thrown on the internet is stuff from a long time ago when I didn’t have a fraction of the influence I have now. I’m not apologizing for them, I’m not even saying they’re inherently error. He added that he “started an initiative to donate money to a charity that aims to protect women from domestic violence.” He also issued a statement saying he denies holding misogynistic views and accused his critics of “distorting the facts”. “It is very unfortunate that my old videos, where I played a comic character, have been taken out of context and amplified to the point where people believe completely false narratives about me,” the statement said. “Internet sensationalism has supported the idea that I’m anti-women, when nothing could be further from the truth. This is just hate mobs who don’t care about the facts of the matter trying to attack me personally. “The media spinning a false image of me, over and over again, and Instagram bowing to the pressure is a huge shame. “I have nothing but to spread positivity to all people, whether male or female, and this is reflected in all my recent messages and posts.” Image: Tate appeared on Big Brother in 2016 “More bad” happens on TikTok – despite being banned YouTube became the latest platform to ban his profile on Tuesday for violating its rules on hate speech. A spokesperson told Bloomberg that Tate-related channels were removed due to “multiple violations” of YouTube’s community guidelines and terms of service, including its hate speech policy. “If a channel is terminated, the user cannot use, own or create other YouTube channels,” the statement said. Campaign group Hope Not Hate had called for the bans, but had also focused on videos of him posted by other profiles on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to the Daily Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Spreaker The group welcomed the moves, but the agency’s director of research told Sky News that the content they were “most worried about” was still online and “the biggest evil” was happening on TikTok. “TikTok says it removes content that violates its terms of service, so content that is explicitly misogynistic is removed… but the issue for us is that not all of its content meets the ban threshold,” Dr Joe Mulhall explained. A TikTok spokesperson said: “Misogyny is a hateful ideology that will not be tolerated on TikTok. We have been taking down offending videos and accounts for weeks and welcome the news that other platforms are taking action against this individual.” Tate also regularly appears in clips discussing topics such as money, cars, cigars or other general topics. But Dr Mulhall warned that because of this, people “suck up” the aspirational lifestyle it presents and then move on to consuming wider content about it, which includes “misogyny, homophobia and anti-multiculturalism”. “I’ve never seen a kind of social media star that’s so toxic and so extreme become so massive,” he said. “I think the damage that has been done in the last six months by Andrew Tate to the Internet will take years to undo.” Image: Andrew Tate. Photo: YouTube/TateSpeech The extreme right Tate has also defended far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, appeared on a podcast with American far-right influencer Mike Cernovich and appeared on InfoWars, a podcast by Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist who recently lost a court case . for the Sandy Hook school shooting in the US. Research by Hope Not Hate described him as a “close associate of far-right extremist” Tommy Robinson and claims he has “a long history of close association with a variety of far-right figures in the UK and America”. “Tommy Robinson did a live stream yesterday (Sunday) afternoon and there were comments on it saying ‘I’m here because of Tate’, so we’re even finding specific examples of Andrew Tate supporters being on his live streams and that’s really scary Dr Mulhall added. “We talk about violent misogyny because it’s really dangerous, but it’s also connected to these networks that some young people will end up getting involved with. “All of a sudden, you’re introducing this whole new audience to these far-right extremists.” Read more: Does Spotify have a problem with hate speech? In one extract, Tate describes Tommy Robinson as a “solid guy” and says he has “hung out” with him “untold times”. “Without getting too deep into his politics, because you know, I’m not saying I disagree with him or agree with him, but I’m telling you something, he’s a good guy, he means what he says, he’s good. heart, he’s honest and I think what the establishment is trying to do to him is extremely unfair.” The UK’s communications regulator Ofcom’s latest research found that using video sharing platforms (VSPs) such as YouTube or TikTok was the most popular online activity among 3-17 year olds (95%) . while the majority chose to watch content on VSPs and 31% posted self-made content. Among all types of online platforms, YouTube was the most widely used by children with 89% using it, compared to half using TikTok, but TikTok was more popular for posting content, he added. Sky News has contacted Andrew Tate and YouTube for comment.
