On social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, one man possessed the algorithm and still shares his misogynistic ideals on the Internet to an extent. Through the latter half of 2022, Andrew Tate and the word “controversy” quickly became synonymous. People started debating whether or not his actions and words would spiral into a rise of toxic masculinity and misogyny, while others claimed he played a character. Now, after becoming de-platformed from all popular forms of social media, the topic of Andrew Tate remains unavoidable, even at North Cobb High School. 

“He’s a creep who objectifies women and teaches all the young men listening to him to follow in his misogynistic footsteps. Not to mention he’s literally under investigation for a whole slur of crimes,” magnet junior Anna Beth Hirshfeld said. 

When asking students and staff about their viewpoints on Tate, several came to the instant conclusion that his existence on social media popularized misogyny and hatred towards women. Although it would act as a no-brainer to come to this conclusion, the results varied when male students answered and shared their opinions on the self-proclaimed Top G.

“Generally, I feel like most of the stuff he says is correct, but there are exceptions to what he says. For example, he believes that mentally, women are more affected by pain, whereas men will just internalize it,” junior Zachary Taranto said. 

Followers of Tate can argue about the percentage of good takes the man makes on the Internet all they want, but people cannot ignore that he genuinely makes statements that stem from a sexist perspective. For example, in 2017 he made a Twitter thread regarding Harvey Weinstein’s sexual allegations. This thread stated that if an individual put themselves in a position that results in sexual assault, they should bare some responsibility. Tate, age 35, also asserted to his fans that he finds 19-year-olds attractive as they endure less sexual experience and describes them as “fresh”. 

In addition to that, Tate claims that women cannot drive, but purely bases this on personal experience and not empirical evidence. When Hasan Piker, a popular Twitch streamer and political commentator, debated Tate on a live stream and explained why the take sounded hysterical, Tate decided to kick him off the stream completely. 

Tate’s actions regarding sexual assault and abuse continue to hold the most weight and prevail as the main reason why no human with decent morals should defend him under any circumstance. In 2016, Tate competed in season 17 of “Big Brother” and Channel 5 executives eventually kicked him off the series after a video of him striking his ex-girlfriend with a belt leaked online. In the video, Tate threatened to kill her if she messaged other men and told them to count her bruises. Afterward, he emailed the video to his friends, who felt genuinely shocked to receive the grotesque video in their inboxes. In response to the video leaking, he played it off as something that both of them consented to.

Any Tate fan should question his morality further when asked why he moved to Romania, as his reasoning raises red flags all around. Shortly after Channel 5 executives took him off “Big Brother”, UK Law Enforcement brought 11 charges against him, several of them regarding sexual assault. In return, the king of masculinity decided to flee the country and avoid the charges completely. In a now-deleted video from his YouTube channel, he said that he found it easier to escape rape charges in Romania, and explained that the country’s leniency served as 40% of the reason he moved to the country.

“I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free,” Tate said.

In April of this year, Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism raided Tate’s home under an investigation of human trafficking. The investigation quickly escalated with the addition of crimes of rape, but as of now the investigation remains paused and Tate remains a free man. In response to these claims, the former kickboxer and his brother Tristan Tate found the accusations hilarious. According to them, a girl visited their home, and her boyfriend saw Tate’s Instagram stories and subsequently called the police. According to a man who promotes rape culture and misogynistic ideas, the boyfriend simply lied as a result of jealousy. 

On August 19, 2022, social media networks took a stand against Tate’s influence by banning him from their platforms, making it extremely difficult for him to gain more followers. This ultimately led to Tate claiming that he played a comedic character, but once the king of toxic masculinity realized his ban would remain permanent, he dropped an hour-long video where he said goodbye to his followers and requested they publicly talk about the ways Tate helped them. 

Even though Tate’s de-platforming may lessen the number of people he influences, this does not automatically kill toxic ideas of masculinity and violence towards women. Even if social media removes the presence of Tate from their platforms, ideas of misogyny will continue to cycle and soon enough another influencer with similar ideologies will rise on the Internet. However, it makes people weary about who draws online attention and makes people question the ethicality of influencers and to what extent it becomes wrong to follow someone.