It seems as though in the past couple of weeks, no one has been able to escape the name ‘Andrew Tate’. While recently viral due to many TikTok videos with millions upon millions of views and shares, Andrew Tate has been in the public eye for far longer than one might imagine.
From kickboxing to Big Brother to Twitter bans, Tate has expanded his reach in every imaginable way possible. He has become a cult-like figure to many directionless men, who are looking to see their own beliefs shared in mainstream media, and thus, justified. This British-American influencer, who currently lives in Romania, has certainly made waves in today’s online culture, prompting a variety of reactions all across the web. But who exactly is the self-proclaimed trillionaire Andrew Tate and why has he gone viral?
Who is Andrew Tate?
Tate was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1986, and spent most of his childhood in Luton, England. His career started in a rather normal and conventional environment, working as an employee selling television advertisements; however, his future would lay in boxing and martial arts. From a young age, Tate trained in various sports, leading to his first interaction with stardom. Winning several tournaments during his kickboxing career, Tate started making a name for himself in Europe. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until a few years later that he would start gaining recognition online.
In 2016, after joining the 17th season of Big Brother, Tate was forcibly removed from the contest after a violent video of the athlete was shared on Facebook. This short clip showed Tate beating a woman with a belt, causing Tate’s immediate eviction from the house. This would only be the first of many controversies to follow Tate over the years. Although the woman in the video has clarified that Tate’s actions were consensual, his actions only tainted his name, with even more negative press pilling on as time went on.
Why has he gone viral?
Not long after his first online controversy, Tate would go to make his first expansion across social media, this time marking Twitter as his victim. Tate has had his accounts suspended on Twitter a total of four times, but that has never stopped this internet sensation from voicing his incredibly questionable opinions. His first suspension was in 2017, during the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases, when Tate took it upon himself to give a voice to the multi-millionaire abuser, sharing his views on what he perceives to be a qualifier for sexual abuse, and thus, defending Weinstein’s actions. This was just the first of many instances in which the athlete would openly voice his disdain for sexual abuse victims.
Since then, Tate has taken his dangerous advice and opinions to TikTok, gaining extreme popularity after his videos were shared by his fans and “students”. To put it simply, the former athlete created a “Hustler’s University”, a private academy that is not, by any means, approved as a licensed educational institute. The students of this university pay a fee to learn about cryptocurrency, dropshipping, and several other subjects, including the idea that attracting “comments and controversy” is the key to success. This has allowed the influencer to maintain a steady income flow, thus becoming a particularly successful figure online. His influence became even larger after requesting the members of Hustler’s University to rack up the views on his videos and share them incessantly.
Since his rise in success and popularity, the self-help guru known as “The King Of Toxic Masculinity” has gained a huge following on TikTok with most of his viewers being young men. His YouTube videos and interview clips show him inciting verbal and physical abuse towards women, and the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the free use of racial and homophobic slurs on his social media.
In addition to his outspoken thoughts, an old video of Tate resurfaced where he admittedly confessed to moving to Romania as it was, in his words, easier to be absolved of rape charges in Eastern Europe. In April 2022, The Daily Beast shared that Tate’s home in Romania had been raided by the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism of Romania, in relation to a human trafficking and rape investigation. This raid resulted in the police finding a Romanian and an American woman on Tate’s property. The investigation into Tate is ongoing.
Regardless of the information shared on Tate’s questionable past, his constant stream of content has granted him a huge following of young men, many of whom believe that Tate simply says what everyone thinks. These men believe Tate is giving a voice to men who feel heavily victimized at the hands of feminism, equality, and politically correct culture; fueling even more hatred and violence in an already vicious society.
