“I’m not a rapist, but…” might be one of the worst openers to a video ever. Andrew Tate, an infamous internet personality, continues his tangent by explaining “if you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must bare some responsibility.” This is by no means out of character for Tate, who was banned from Twitter in 2017 for his comments regarding Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault charges. Making a comeback in the summer of 2022 on TikTok and Youtube, Tate quickly amassed a following of young, impressionable boys through his commentary. With his bald head reflecting the studio lights almost as aggressively as he reflected the views of far-right extremists, Tate became an entrance for his viewers to the alt-right pipeline. By presenting concerning beliefs in the form of masculine, empowering videos, he immediately attracted an audience of easily-swayed young men. Often, videos would start off relatively normally with Tate answering questions in a podcast format, and would quickly escalate to aggressive, misogynistic beliefs. For example, in one infamous interview, when presented with the question of what he would do if a woman cheated on him, Tate answered with “It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up b****.” Clearly, his views did not align with most people, and he was soon banned from Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Twitter, Youtube, and TikTok.
To add on to his already atrocious behavior, Tate was accused of human trafficking, rape, and domestic violence. A video recently resurfaced of him brutally beating a woman during his time on the reality TV show Big Brother. In the upsetting clip, he slaps her and hits her with a belt, leading to his release from the show a mere week after the video originally spread. Also, in April of 2022, Tate’s mansion in Romania was searched after a tip was called in claiming he was keeping a woman against her will. Although the investigation found no illegal activities, the investigation is still ongoing. This was especially concerning after Tate’s comments on why he moved to Romania. Specifically, he claimed that he appreciated its lower levels of the #MeToo movement, after which he explained that he wasn’t a rapist, but liked “the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.” Clearly, it is a success of the internet that this man has been banned from all platforms.