Andrew Tate: has he been banned from Facebook and Instagram, why was he removed from Big Brother?

Influencer Andrew Tate has been banned from Facebook and Instagram for violating its policies, social media giant Meta has confirmed.

The parent company of the two platforms said it had removed Mr Tate’s official accounts for breaching its rules around dangerous organisations or individuals and that he was now banned from using either Facebook or Instagram.

Mr Tate rose to fame after appearing on Big Brother in 2016 and has become a social media influencer.

However he has been criticised for the “misogynistic” contents of his videos.

He has since gained further notoriety online for a number of comments about women, including suggesting that they “bear some responsibility” for being assaulted – an incident for which he was banned from Twitter.

Here is all you need to know:

Who is Andrew Tate?

Born in Chicago, Illinois in December 1986, Tate is the son of American chess International Master Emory Tate.

He moved to the UK when he was one and grew up in Luton.

Tate won the International Sport Karate Association (ISKA) Full Contact Cruiserweight championship in Derby in 2009.

Away from his kickboxing and MMA career, he has had a successful online career - peaking in popularity in 2022.

He rose to notoriety after being removed from Big Brother in 2016.

Why was he removed from Big Brother?

Mr Tate rose to fame when he appeared on the reality TV show Big Brother in 2016, however, he was removed from the programme after a video surfaced online which appeared to show him attacking a woman with a belt – a clip he claimed had been edited.

What is Hustler’s University?

His personal website offers training courses on getting rich and “male–female interactions”.

Tate operates the Hustler’s University (which is not an accredited educational institute) in which members receive lessons on topics such as dropshipping and cryptocurrency trading in exchange for a monthly membership fee.

In January of this year, the Daily Mirror reported that Tate and his brother Tristan were “raking in millions from webcam sites where men hand over a fortune as they fall for models’ fake sob stories” – something they themselves described as a “total scam”.

Why is Tate everywhere in 2022?

Videos of Tate feature on YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms.

He has become highly prominent in 2022, after encouraging Hustler University members to share videos featuring Tate on social media websites including TikTok.

These videos have been viewed over 11.6 billion times on the platforms.

But he has been criticised for the content of his videos, with his comments being described as “extremely misogynistic” by the White Ribbon campaign.

The non-profit group, which advocates against male-on-female violence, has expressed concern at the possible long-term effects of his commentary on his young male audience.

Why has he been banned from Facebook and Instagram?

He has had his official accounts removed from Facebook and Instagram this week, Meta confirmed.

The parent company said it had removed the accounts for breaching its rules around dangerous organisations or individuals.

Tate is now banned from using either Facebook or Instagram.

Is he under investigation by police?

In a video posted on YouTube, but later deleted, Andrew Tate stated that he decided to move to Romania because it was easier to be absolved of rape charges in Eastern Europe.

The Guardian reports that in April 2022, Tate’s mansion in Romania was raided by police after “a tip-off from the US embassy that a 21-year-old American woman was being held against her will”.

He was released after being questioned, but the Romanian authorities later confirmed that the investigation was still ongoing - and that it had been expanded to cover human trafficking and rape allegations.

Could he be banned from TikTok?

Videos of and about Mr Tate have also become popular on both YouTube and TikTok – videos using a hashtag of his name have been viewed more than 13 billion times on TikTok alone.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesman said: “Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok. 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.”

Google – which owns YouTube – has also been approached for comment.

How has Andrew Tate reacted?

In a statement, Mr Tate denied he held misogynistic views and accused his critics of “twisting facts”.

“It is very unfortunate that old videos of me, where I was playing a comedic character, have been taken out of context and amplified to the point where people believe absolutely false narratives about me,” the statement said.

“Internet sensationalism has purported the idea that im (sic) anti women when nothing could be further from the truth. This is simply hate mobs who are uninterested in the facts of the matter trying to personally attack me.

“The media is spinning a false image of me, on repeat, and instagram bowing to pressure is a massive shame.

“I have nothing but positivity to spread regarding all PEOPLE, wether (sic) male OR female, and this has been reflected in all of my recent messaging and posts.”

“Tate poses a genuine threat to young men”

Responding to news of Mr Tate’s ban from Facebook and Instagram, Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate, said: “Tate poses a genuine threat to young men, radicalising them towards extremism misogyny, racism and homophobia.

“We’ve provided significant evidence to the major social media platforms, including Meta, about his activity and why he must be removed.

“We welcome Meta’s swift action to remove Andrew Tate and we’ll be putting pressure on TikTok to follow this example. They must act now to prevent further spread of these extremist views.”

Ruth Davison, chief executive of women’s safety charity Refuge, said Meta had made the “right decision” in banning Mr Tate.

“This is the kind of decisive action needed to tackle the online radicalisation of young men towards a violently misogynistic worldview,” she said.

“The same kind of action is now needed outside of high-profile cases like this – we know that women are experiencing stalking, harassment and abuse online every day, often without so much as a response from social media companies.”

Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, said Mr Tate’s “hatred” had been “amplified into millions of young men’s newsfeeds”.

He said social media platforms now needed to do more to crack down on videos showing Tate or those which amplify his views.

“More needs to be done. Tate encourages his followers to post his videos using their own accounts and link back to his website. Accounts are still pumping out clips of Tate as part of his Hustler’s University pyramid scheme. YouTube is rife with videos doing this, and have made Google up millions in ad revenue,” he said.

“Meta should now go further and ensure that other people posting videos containing Mr Tate are sanctioned for breaching their community standards on hate, and ban the posting of links to his website, which contains material designed to radicalise young men.”