‘Dangerous misogynist’ Andrew Tate booted from Instagram and Facebook

Kari Paul
·2 min read

Controversial online influencer and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate has been banned from Meta platforms Instagram and Facebook.

The former kickboxer and reality TV star was removed for violating Meta policies “on dangerous organizations and individuals”, the company confirmed by email.

Related: Alex Jones ordered to pay $45.2m in punitive damages to Sandy Hook family

Tate first rose to prominence after appearing on the TV show Big Brother in 2016, when he was removed from the series after a video of him beating a woman outside the show surfaced.

Since then, he has garnered backlash for his posts across social media, which domestic abuse charities have called “extreme misogyny”. He stated on Twitter in 2017 that women belong in the home and that rape victims “bear responsibility” for their attack, after which Twitter permanently banned him from the platform.

Tate has grown a following for his advice videos to men, many of them veering into sexist territory. On one YouTube video, Tate described himself as “absolutely a misogynist”. He said: “I’m a realist and when you’re a realist you’re sexist. There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist.”

In a statement to the Guardian, Tate characterized many of his videos as parody, stating he was “playing a comedic character”.

Related: Inside the violent, misogynistic world of TikTok’s new star, Andrew Tate

“Internet sensationalism has purported the idea that im [sic] anti women when nothing could be further from the truth,” he said, adding that he has donated to charities benefitting women. “I am genuinely innocent.”

Tate was a vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump and has appeared on a number of rightwing podcasts, including shows like Infowars, hosted by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. More recently Tate has become “impossible to avoid” on social media, and at the time of his ban from Meta platforms he had more than 4.7 million followers on Instagram.

TikTok has also banned Tate’s official account on their platform and is working to remove content related to him that violates guidelines. Videos using hashtags related to Tate have been seen more than 12.7bn times. The UK advocacy group Hope Not Hate called Tate a “dangerous misogynist” and called on more social media companies to deplatform him.

“Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok,” a TikTok spokesperson said. “We’ve been removing violative videos and accounts for weeks, and we welcome the news that other platforms are also taking action against this individual.”

A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Tate’s account was active on TikTok. It is not. It was a parody account. The story has been corrected to reflect that.

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