Andrew Tate, a former “Big Brother contestant,” has been widely discussed on social media recently and has been dubbed a threat to young males due to his misogynistic opinions. Platforms like TikTok might have entertaining challenges and dance routines, but they also feature some “unsavory” content too. For the content he produces, Andrew Tate has been dubbed the “King of Toxic Masculinity.”
Tate’s influence has been significantly diminished due to domestic abuse charities criticizing him and banning him for policy violations from various social media platforms. But for those who are curious about the origins of the contentious character, here is all the information you need to know about Andrew Tate and his rise to fame.
The social media star previously oversaw Hustler’s University, a subscription-based online education program where users paid $49 per month to learn how to purportedly make $10k0 per month through cryptocurrency investment, drop-shipping, or other scam-related activities. Additionally, customers received a commission for each referral they helped sign up for, and they promoted their affiliate links by posting clips from Tate’s most inflammatory movies all over social media. Before its closure earlier this week, Hustler’s University reportedly had 127,000 members, and despite its shutdown, Tate continues to serve as the host of his Tate Speech podcast.
The road to fame
Under the guise of a self-help guru, offering his mostly-male fans a recipe for making money, pulling girls, and “escaping the matrix,” Tate has gone from near obscurity to one of the most talked about people in a matter of months in the world. In July, there were more Google searches for his name than for Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian.
His rapid surge to fame was not by chance. Evidence shows that Tate’s followers are being told to flood social media with videos of him, choosing the most controversial clips to achieve maximum views and engagement.
He first rose to fame in 2016 after being removed from the reality TV show “Big Brother” after a video appeared to show him attacking a woman with a belt, a clip he now claims was edited. Since then, he has gained further notoriety on sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for his offensive comments, including some in which he suggested rape victims “bear some responsibility” for being attacked and others where he refers to women as “property” belonging to men.
He has also described how he would violently assault a woman for accusing him of cheating, saying he would “bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck.” As a result, concerns have been raised about his influence on young people, particularly young men.
Critic
Popular Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker, a prominent critic of Tate’s, has weighed in on Hustler’s University, explaining that it both feeds off of and profits from Tate’s fandom. He explained that he’s hooking them in with reactionary points of view that many people hold on to regardless and then using that as an opportunity to instill confidence in them and turn around and sell the product – that is himself. Piker further explained that Tate is making money by selling his audience the idea that they can get rich, “but the way he’s getting rich is by selling you the idea of teaching you how to get rich.”