Tate’s tantrums

Andrew Tate’s rise to popularity is representative of society’s susceptibility to hateful ideologies online, such as toxic masculinity. Warning: this article contains mentions of sexual violence and assault.

Kamakshee Kuchhal, Lead Print Copy Editor|November 19, 2022

“If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must [bear] some responsibility.”

Andrew Tate tweeted this disgusting comment in 2017 at the height of the #MeToo movement but this isn’t close to it all; Tate has made countless, blatantly sexist claims, such as explicitly describing how he would assault a woman for accusing him of cheating and asserting that men would rather date younger women because they’ve had less sex. These horrific claims have resulted in Twitter permanently banning his account for violating community guidelines in 2017 as well as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok banning him Aug. 20 due to hate speech. Although he’s no longer on social media, Tate’s horrific legacy lives on within bigoted people whose beliefs were reinforced due to society’s susceptibility to hateful ideologies online. 

Although banned, the impact of Tate’s posts lingers due to the internet’s permanency. Dozens of fan accounts with thousands of followers are dedicated to actively spreading videos of him, racking up millions of views. Clips of him are easily available on multiple platforms, including those that romanticize violence against women. The worst part is that Tate is still active online; he offers memberships for paid courses that teach men that their value is derived from cars, wealth and their ability to impress women. The program is still operational today with videos, quotes and merchandise related to Tate — only an incentive to further share his message. Tate’s digital footprint has left a permanent scar on the internet, and people who idolize him will stop at nothing to share his views. Tate’s legacy is implanted into society, showing just how easily the internet spreads his beliefs even without him present on mainstream social media platforms.

Along with the permanency of the internet, the manipulation Tate uses to back his statements adds to the extreme consumption of his content. One of the methods he uses is targeting the fragility of masculinity that is present in today’s society. The concept of toxic masculinity is used to glorify the worst aspects of masculine attributes: dominance, control and aggression. This encompasses things like telling men to “man up” for expressing their emotions or saying “boys will be boys” to justify inappropriate behaviors. Tate uses toxic masculinity to promote a feeling of superiority and power over women. For example, he deems women to be incapable of fighting or defending themselves with their only option to “scream and run” and seeds false information as to how women think, act and feel. Tate tells men to feel empowered by these so-called weaknesses and take advantage of women. Not only does Tate’s manipulation make his content addicting to digest, but it can also fester into targeted violence against women that we’ve seen time and time again.

The nature of social media also feeds into society’s susceptibility to false information. This is due to echo chambers, or the lack of exposure to diverse perspectives and the formation of groups of like-minded users. Many people often find themselves only hearing one side of a news story; it’s hard to be fully informed with an overload of biased perspectives matching their own. Social media algorithms perpetuate echo chambers because they are designed to prioritize a user’s feed based on the likelihood of interactivity. People’s online feeds are tailored toward their own viewpoints instead of differing voices. Misogyny and toxic masculinity can easily become normalized in these spaces, which creates a safe environment for personalities like Tate.

These echo chambers and the “shock value” of Tate’s radical beliefs likely contributed to his increasing influence within communities; Tate amassed over 4.7 million followers on Instagram and 11.6 billion views on TikTok before being banned. Even after being removed from social media, he is still the third most Googled person of 2022 as of September, according to Glimpse. The issue isn’t just that his views are radical but that he abuses this growing influence to spread them. A teacher witnessed Tate’s impact firsthand; freshmen boys refused to engage in assignments with female authors because they “belonged in the kitchen” and “women are inferior to men,” specifically referencing Tate.

Moments like these demonstrate how influential extremist communities can easily turn beliefs into action in the real world. We saw this materialize when Trump supporters charged the capital Jan. 6, 2021 to riot against the Democratic presidential win. When personalities with a large platform spread misinformation within an echo chamber, terrifying events can occur. Who is to say that they won’t happen again? Through the permanency of social media, targeting weaknesses of viewers and natural echo chambers, Tate has shown how susceptible society can be to radical ideologies online. The fact that we are still talking about Tate today proves that society needs to be aware of the unhealthy mindsets social media creates and recognize the severity of Andrew Tate’s influence.