A parent’s guide to Andrew Tate, the self-proclaimed misogynist facing charges in Romania

Nittya Rizza, a teacher at Markham, first googled Andrew Tate after one of her grade 12 students asked if they could have a discussion about him, and was alarmed by what she found.

“It was horrible,” she says.

The 36-year-old influential right-winger and self-proclaimed misogynist made headlines this week after he was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and rape in Romania. Many people were left wondering why, exactly, the former kickboxer and “Big Brother” contestant was generating so much attention.

But if you don’t know who you are, chances are your teens do.

In an era where parents can no longer go through the family computer to see exactly what their kids are consuming online, some educators say Tate rose to prominence while kids were away from school in person because of the pandemic, missed opportunities to socialize in person, and have relied too heavily on social media platforms to fill in the gaps.

Tate fans say he is standing up for men’s rights. But critics of her say she promotes views along the way that may radicalize some young boys against women: she was banned from Twitter in 2017 after tweeting that women who are raped “must take some responsibility” (sic). (Her account of him was recently reinstated after Elon Musk bought the platform.) also argued that women are the property of men and should not be allowed to drive. Plus, she’s doing it using social media platforms that her parents may not be taking seriously.

He “has a lot of emotional appeal to this younger generation of guys who are down and alone and haven’t been properly socialized,” Rizza says. “They think they can empower themselves and gain social capital with what Andrew Tate is teaching them.”

Here’s what you need to know about Tate.

Tate rose to fame in 2016 as a contestant on “Big Brother,” and has since amassed a massive following on Instagram before her page was taken down, with fans sharing her content independently on TikTok. The #AndrewTate hashtag surpassed 13.7 billion views on the platform.

While some of his content has faced bans online, his alleged choices in the real world led to more severe action this week, with police in Romania arresting him and charging him and his brother, Tristan, with sex trafficking and violation.

According to Romanian police, the brothers conspired with Romanian citizens to trick the women into coming to their villa in Bucharest, the New York Daily News reported. Once the women arrived, they were physically and psychologically intimidated and then forced to stay behind and film pornographic videos, police said.

Tate has said that he used to have “girlfriends” working for his successful online webcam business.

Investigators said at least one victim was allegedly raped twice and six alleged victims were rescued from the compound.

Earlier in the week, Tate had tangled online with Greta Thunberg, the 19-year-old celebrity Swedish climate activist. On Tuesday, Tate tweeted a photo of himself next to a Bugatti and tagged her bragging about owning 33 cars and asking for her email address so he could send her a “full list of my car collection and their respective huge emissions.”

After she slapped him, he tweeted another video of him smoking a cigar and further taunting her with a pizza box on the table in front of him: Jerry’s Pizza, a shop in Romania. Twitter users said this is part of the reason Romanian authorities were able to identify his location and arrest him, but police say this is not true.

The online fight was more in line with what Tate has previously known.

Just as TikTok was gaining popularity among young people during the pandemic, Tate’s videos were gaining popularity, as were his words about how women can’t drive, shouldn’t leave the house, are owned by men and are worth less if they have a lot of time. . dating history Frequently appeared in cropped videos posted by other users.

Rizza’s entire 12th grade class at Markham knew of Tate and engaged with his often hateful online content, fueled in part by the pandemic, social isolation and increased time spent behind screens.

In her experience, her students and other young people turned to Tate after feeling attacked by the #MeToo movement, feminism and rumors of sexual assault on girls.

Luc Cousineau, a University of Waterloo professor who researches masculinity, misogyny and men’s rights activism, places Tate in the category of “right-wing misogynist hustlers,” which includes “pickup artists” and others that appeal to young men who feel disenfranchised and left behind by a society that has emphasized women’s rights.

There are some dynamics that set Tate apart from other right-wing online personalities who prey on young men’s insecurities about wealth and relationships for monetary gain, Cousineau said. Most importantly, Cousineau argues that Tate encourages violence.

“What effect does it have if, for example, you’re a new teacher identifying with a woman in her 20s who’s starting out in, say, a high school classroom, and you have 16, 17, 18-year-olds signing up to Andrew Tate…your students have signed up” to someone who encourages violence against you, he said.

Also notable is Tate’s ability to make its content go viral.

“The new thing about Andrew Tate is that he figured out the algorithm…how this happened is a mystery, but either he figured it out or someone on his team really figured out how to leverage his presence, on TikTok in particular.” Cousineau said.

One method that appears to have been successful was an effort to promote Tate businesses such as Hustler’s University: a series of online “courses” promising financial success to “students” by “mastering a high-paying skill, starting your business in online and leverage modern investment strategies”: People were told to post videos of Tate that would spark controversy on social platforms to increase their chances of going viral.

Part of Hustler’s University’s business model was to pay users a commission if they got other “students” to sign up with their affiliate links, many of whom appeared in the very biographies of those who posted constant streams of Tate videos online. .

Tate has since been banned from TikTok, with the platform saying that content featuring him would be removed early this year. Still, the #andrewtatequotes hashtag hit 1.1 billion views, and the very content they said would be removed would be available to view.

TikTok tends to have a younger demographic than Twitter or Facebook. Cousineau said it’s concerning to see Tate so popular with teens, who might feel more pressure to follow her advice.

“At 36 the reaction is, oh, I fell behind…at 16 the message is, well, if you don’t start fighting for this today, it will never be accessible to you or anyone you know,” Cousineau said.

He added that he doesn’t think Tate has actively courted this demographic, but simply mastered the platform most likely to reach them.

Tate’s videos online traveled fast, as most controversial content does, but it didn’t gain notoriety solely from TikTok.

In 2016, Tate was kicked out of Big Brother for a video of him beating a woman with a belt. A second video surfaced shortly afterwards in which he is shown telling a woman to count the bruises he apparently caused her, The Guardian reported. Both Tate and the woman denied any abuse took place and said the clips showed consensual sex.

In September 2017, Tate came under fire from mental health charities for saying depression isn’t real, and in October of the same year he said women should take some responsibility for being raped during the #MeToo movement.

Still, Tate isn’t always spouting rhetoric like this, often telling young people to strive to be better and work on themselves, to be strong-minded, and to compete to be a “winner” in society, a The kind of self-help brand that can hook people to Tate before they’re exposed to its most controversial content.

Now his own future remains to be seen as he remains in custody in Romania and faces charges.

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