Emory Andrew Tate III (born 1 December 1986) is an American-British social media personality, businessman, and former professional K-1 kickboxer. Tate began practising kickboxing in 2005 and won his first championship in 2009; he later became a four-time world champion. In 2016 he appeared on the British reality show Big Brother but was removed as he was the suspect in an open rape investigation in the UK. After his kickboxing career, Tate and his brother, Tristan, began operating a webcam model business, followed by selling online courses; notably Hustler's University, which gained 100,000 subscribers, later rebranded to The Real World, and the secretive War Room group, which has been accused of grooming women into sex work and teaching violence against women.[3]
His controversial commentary has resulted in de-platforming from various social media platforms[4] and concern from advocacy groups, charities, non-profit organisations, teachers, parents, mental health experts, as well as UK counter-terror police. Surveys have found that most Britons have heard of Tate, who is viewed favourably among many young men, considered influential, and has been dubbed the "king of toxic masculinity" by multiple media outlets,[5] as part of the "manosphere".[6] With appearances on conspiracy news site InfoWars, Tate has been described as a right-wing and far-right influencer, and has described himself as "absolutely" misogynistic and sexist. In August 2023, it was estimated that Tate's online ventures generated US$5 million in revenue per month. As of December 2023, Tate had over 8.5 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and was the third-most "googled" person in 2023.
In December 2022, he and his brother Tristan were arrested in Romania along with two women, all four suspected of human trafficking and forming an organised crime group. Romanian police alleged that the group coerced victims into creating paid pornography in a criminal operation to financially benefit the four accused persons.[7] In March 2023, all four were moved to house arrest while the investigation continued, after being held in custody since their arrest.[8][9] In June, they were charged with rape, human trafficking, and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women. Tate and his brother deny all charges.[10] In July, two of the accusers reportedly went into hiding after a campaign of online harassment,[11] and the Tate brothers filed a defamation lawsuit claiming US$5 million in damages against one of the accusers.[12]
Tate started practising boxing and other martial arts in 2005, and worked in the television advertising industry to support himself. In November 2008, he was ranked the seventh-best light heavyweight kickboxer in the United Kingdom by the International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA).[24] In 2009, he gained his first championship when he won the British ISKA Full Contact Cruiserweight Championship in Derby, and Won the International Kickboxing Federation British belt and got ranked number one in his division in Europe.[25][26] Tate's kickboxing nickname was "King Cobra".[27]
In 2011, Tate won his first International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA) world title in a rematch against Jean-Luc Benoît via knockout, having previously lost to Benoit by decision.[28] In 2012, Tate lost the Enfusion championship tournament to Franci Grajš.[1] Before his loss, he was ranked second-best light-heavyweight kickboxer in the world.[29] In 2013, Tate won his second ISKA world title in a 12-round match against Vincent Petitjean, making him world champion in two weight divisions.[30] He defended the ISKA Belt and Won the Enfusion Belt in 2014 making him a four-time world champion,[31] prior to retiring with 31 recorded fights.[32]
Big Brother
Tate came to wider public attention in 2016 when he appeared on the British reality show Big Brother, during its seventeenth series.[33] While appearing on the show, he came under scrutiny for having made homophobic and racist comments on Twitter in the past.[34] He was removed from the show after six days, with producers citing a video apparently showing him hitting a woman with a belt.[35] Tate and the woman said that they were friends and that the actions in the video were consensual.[36][35][37]Vice later reported that the removal was caused by the producers becoming aware of an ongoing police investigation for rape, closed in 2019 with no charges filed.[38]
Online ventures
Online ventures pyramid as depicted in "Andrew Tate: The Man Who Groomed The World?", BBC Three documentary, August 2023. Numbers correspond to followers and subscribers of platforms.[39][40]
Tate's website offers training courses on accumulating wealth and "male–female interactions".[35] According to the website, he also operated a webcam studio using his girlfriends as the employees.[35] Tate and his brother Tristan started the webcam business, employing as many as 75 webcam models[41] to sell "fake sob stories" to male callers,[42] claiming to have made millions of dollars doing so. He later said that the business model was a "total scam".[43] In August 2023, it was estimated the Hustler's University and The War Room generated $5 million per month from subscriptions.[44]
Hustler's University
Tate operated Hustler's University, a platform where members paid a $49.99 monthly membership fee to receive instruction on ways to make money outside traditional employment, such as cryptocurrency, copywriting, and e-commerce, which was facilitated by pre-recorded videos and a Discord server.[45] The website employed an affiliate marketing program, where members received a commission for recruiting others to the platform.[46] Tate became highly prominent in 2022 by encouraging members of Hustler's University to post large numbers of videos of him to social media platforms in an effort to maximise engagement.[36] In August 2022, the platform had amassed over 100,000 subscribers,[47] the Irish-American financial services company Stripe pulled out of processing subscriptions for the platform, and Hustler's University shut down its affiliate marketing program. Paul Harrigan, a marketing professor at the University of Western Australia, stated the affiliate program constituted a social media pyramid scheme.[48] After Hustler's University was shut down, Tate launched a rebranded version of the program called "The Real World" in October 2022.[49][46] In March 2023, according to the website, the platform has gained 168,000 subscribers, equating to $8 million in revenue per month.[50]
War Room
Advertised by Tate and costing $8,000, the War Room is described as "a global network in which exemplars of individualism work to free the modern man from socially induced incarceration" claiming to teach men "physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial development".[44] The alleged leader of the group, Miles Sonkin, also known as Iggy Semmelweiss, met Tate in 2018 and the group was established in 2019.[3][51] The Tate brothers are considered to be the head of the group.[52] In August 2023, a BBC investigation led by Matt Shea discovered evidence of women groomed into online sex work by members of the group,[3] described as an all-male secretive society.[40] In response, Tate claimed:
The War Room promotes self-discipline, motivation and confidence building whilst giving members access to thousands of professionals from around the world who encourage personal responsibility and accountability, emphasising the importance of taking ownership of your choices and actions,[3]
The group chat, featuring 12,000 pages of encrypted messages, indicated that the group taught a "Pimpin' Hoes Degree" course, abbreviated to PhD, using techniques to "romantically seduce, emotionally manipulate and socially isolate women before luring them into performing on webcams".[3] A since deleted description of the now defunct PhD course on he website read:
My job was to meet a girl… get her to fall in love with me to where she’d do anything I’d say, and then get her on webcam so we could become rich together,[52][53]
Evidence suggested violence against women was also taught and discussed, with victims claiming sex was used as a manipulation technique, known as the "lover boy" method. Members of the group believed they were performing "Pavlovian conditioning" on the women, with submission tests such as receiving tattoos on their bodies of members initials. A whistleblower, who claimed to be former head of sales and marketing, described the group as a cult that he had been "brainwashed" by.[3][54] A spokeswoman for Tate stated the BBC's findings "not only present false accusations, but insult the massive community that considers Andrew Tate a life changing positive force".[3] According to Rolling Stone, a guiding principle of the group is to attain multiple passports and citizenships, to achieve autonomy from "The Matrix", describing the group as a "fraternity-like organization".[50] As of August 2022, there were 434 members and 45 potential victims, based on the leaked chat logs.[3]
Views and influence
Tate in an interview on Anything Goes with James English, 2021
In an interview on the podcast Anything Goes with James English in 2021, Tate declared:
You can't slander me because I will state right now that I am absolutely sexist and I'm absolutely a misogynist, and I have fuck you money and you can't take that away.[68][69]
Tate received attention for his tweets describing his view of what qualifies as sexual harassment amid the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases and for tweeting several statements about his view that sexual assault victims share responsibility for their assaults.[35] He has been dubbed as the "king of toxic masculinity" by media outlets as well as fans.[5] In 2017, he was criticised for tweeting that depression "isn't real".[14][70] He has stated that women "belong in the home", that they "can't drive",[71] and that they are "given to the man and belong to the man",[14] as well as claiming that men prefer dating 18- and 19-year-olds, because they are "likely to have had sex with fewer men", in order to "make an imprint" on teenagers,[72] and that women who do not stay at home are "hoes".[73] His views have also been described as "brainwashing a generation".[74]
In February 2023, Thierry Baudet, founder and leader of the far-right Forum for Democracy, described Tate as an "outspoken political dissident" and "courageous critic", tabling a motion in the Dutch parliament regarding his detention in Romania.[75] In September, Tate came out in support of Russell Brand after he was accused of sexual assault by multiple women.[76][77] In November he accused Israel of "genociding" Palestinians and claimed that the Hamas attack on Israel was as "an eye for an eye".[78] In December, during a dispute with Piers Morgan, Tate described conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as a "f****** hero", after his reinstatement on Twitter,[79] previously describing him as "one of the greatest men on the planet".[80]
Reception
The White Ribbon Campaign, a nonprofit organisation opposing male-on-female violence, has called Tate's commentary "extremely misogynistic" and its possible long-term effects on his young male audience "concerning".[81]Hope not Hate, an anti-extremism advocacy group, asserts Tate's social media presence might present a "dangerous slip road into the far-right" for his audience,[82] and criticises his ties to the far-right.[80] The Rape Crisis England and Wales claimed it was "unacceptable that such a blatant display of misogyny is being given a platform."[82] In response to criticism, Tate stated that his content includes "many videos praising women" and mainly aims at teaching his audience to avoid "toxic and low value people as a whole".[72] He further stated that he plays a "comedic character" and said that people believed "absolutely false narratives" about him.[83]
Tate's views and their influence on teenage boys and young men has become a particular concern of parents, teachers and mental health experts in much of the world, including in North America,[84][85] the United Kingdom,[86]Australia[87][88] and New Zealand.[89] Tim Squirrell of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue said Tate posed "a risk of radicalising young men into misogynist extremism".[90] In the UK, courses for teachers have been run on how to address Tate's views.[91] The Department for Education have discouraged discussion of Tate, with many citing his influence regarding sexual harassment and misogynistic incidents.[92] The head of UK counter-terror policing has stated "I’m concerned about the effect of that kind of rhetoric in the minds of young boys", regarding what was described as violent misogyny and other forms of extremist content, distributed online by Tate.[93]
A February 2023 survey conducted by Hope not Hate found that eight in ten British boys aged 16 and 17 had viewed Tate's content. 45% of British men aged 16–24 had a positive view of him, compared to 1% of British women aged 16–17.[94] In September, YouGov data found 26% of men aged 18–29, and 28% of men aged 30–39, agreed with his views on women. Of the 63% of British adults who had heard of Tate, 6% held a positive view, with men making up 12% and women 3% of views, while approximately half had a negative view.[80][95] Director of policy at Hope not Hate described Tate as a "legitimizing force" for misogynistic views and director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition commented it was "hugely concerning", and that the survey demonstrated: "Tate continues to wield influence on a significant proportion of younger men, who say they agree with his views on women, masculinity and how to be a man." The Centre for Countering Digital Hate has previously described Tate's videos as "extreme misogyny".[80]
In October, a report by UK domestic abuse charity Women's Aid describing Tate's content as a proxy for misogyny and sexism, claiming "the popularity of Tate is not a phenomenon in and of itself and, instead, is a current representation of existing misogyny". A survey by ORB International found 40% of 7-18 year-olds had heard of Tate, including 21% of 7-11 year-olds and otherwise 43-53% of 11-18 year-olds. The report found a correlation between being exposed to Tate's content and having harmful perceptions of relationships,[96] and "five times more likely to think hurting people is OK".[97]
Social media
Tate became widely known in mid-2022 and was searched on Google more times than both Donald Trump and COVID-19 that July.[82] As of December 2023, Tate has over 8.5 million followers on X (formerly Twitter),[98] an increase of 5 million since December 2022.[99] He was the third most googled person in 2023[100] and his Wikipedia article, with over 12 million views, was ranked among the top 25 English Wikipedia articles in 2023.[101]
In December 2022, Tate addressed the environmentalist Greta Thunberg in a tweet extolling his carbon-emitting automobiles and asked for her email address to give her more information. Thunberg replied with the fake email address "smalldickenergy@getalife.com". The exchange received substantial attention on Twitter,[104] with Thunberg's retort quickly becoming one of the most-liked tweets ever.[105]
Tate gained notoriety on social media for promoting a "hyper-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle".[10] According to The Guardian in February 2023, Tate is popular among British teenage boys, who mimic his phrases and philosophies. They reported that "virtually every parent in Britain" had heard of him, and parents and schoolteachers expressed concern that he was influencing boys to exhibit misogynistic and aggressive behaviour.[33]CNN reported that students as young as middle schoolers have regurgitated his abuse and harassed female classmates. In the UK and Australia, sexual harassment in schools have also been blamed on Tate's influence.[106]
Deplatforming
Three of Tate's Twitter accounts have been suspended at different times. In 2021, an account that he created to evade his previous ban was verified by Twitter, contrary to their policies. The account was subsequently permanently banned, and Twitter said the verification occurred in error.[35] It was unbanned in November 2022.[107] In August 2022, following an online campaign to deplatform him, Tate was permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram, losing 4.7 million followers from the latter.[108] Parent company Meta claimed he had violated their policy on "dangerous organizations and individuals".[109]TikTok, where videos featuring Tate's name as a hashtag have been viewed over 13 billion times, also removed his account after determining that it violated their policies on "content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanizes an individual or a group".[66] Shortly thereafter, YouTube also suspended his channel, where he had 760,000 subscribers,[82] citing multiple violations, including hate speech and COVID-19 misinformation, and he later deleted his own Twitch channel, that had 50,000 subscribers.[110][111]
Tate responded to the bans by saying that, while most of his comments were taken out of context, he took responsibility for how they were received.[14] Media personality Jake Paul denounced Tate's sexism, but characterised the bans as censorship.[41] Tate's content continues to circulate on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok after the bans via fan accounts.[112][113] Following the bans, Tate moved to alt-tech platforms Gettr and Rumble, causing the latter to briefly become the most downloaded app on the App Store.[114][115] In November 2022, after the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, Tate's Twitter account was reinstated.[107]
Personal life
In 2017, Tate moved from the United Kingdom to Romania with his brother, Tristan Tate, with whom he runs multiple businesses. He said that he moved because he liked "living in countries where corruption is accessible for everybody"[116] and believed that it would be less likely to face rape charges in Romania, stating that Romanian police would ask women reporting rapes for "evidence" or "CCTV proof", whereas in the Western world, amid the MeToo movement, Tate said that any woman "at any point in the future can destroy your life."[117][118][69][119] Tate reportedly has a number of children living in Romania whom he occasionally visits.[120][121]
Tate was raised Christian,[23] and later became an atheist.[122] By early 2022, he identified as a Christian again, and said that he tithed £16,000 to the Romanian Orthodox Church on a monthly basis.[123][124] After a video of him praying at a mosque in Dubai went viral in October 2022, he announced on his Gettr account that he had converted to Islam.[125][126][127]
On 4 March 2023, while incarcerated in Romania, Tate's legal team stated "he has a dark spot on his lung, most likely a tumor" following a medical consultation in Dubai, sparking online rumours related to whether he has lung cancer.[128] On 5 March, Tate denied on Twitter that he had cancer.[129]
Criminal investigations
2015–2019 British investigation
In January 2023, VICE News reported that Tate had been accused by two women of rape, and by another of repeated strangulation, which Tate denied. In 2019, after a four-year investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service declined to file charges for any of the allegations, stating that the evidence "did not meet our legal test, and there was no realistic prospect of a conviction", and that "it would be wrong to say there was just one issue" with the evidence. The three women have commented that the case was mishandled, with the police apologising for delays in the investigation, while according to Tate, the police "found [exculpatory] messages from the girls' phones".[38][130][131]
2022–present Romanian investigation
On 11 April 2022, the U.S. embassy received a report that an American citizen was being held against her will in a property owned by the Tate brothers in Pipera, Romania.[132] The Romanian police raided the home, and a nearby webcam studio belonging to the Tates, where they discovered four women. Two of them, the American and another Romanian woman, told the police they were being held against their will, sparking an in-rem[a] investigation into human trafficking and rape by DIICOT, the Romanian anti-organised crime agency.[134][135] The two brothers were interrogated and released. At the time, they were heard as witnesses rather than suspects.[136]
Arrests and investigation
On 29 December 2022, the police arrested both Tate brothers and two women.[137] All four are suspected of human trafficking and forming an organised crime group, and one of them (unidentified due to Romanian law) is suspected of rape. DIICOT accuses the Tates of having recruited women through the "loverboy" method—which consists of misrepresenting one's intention to commit to a romantic relationship—and having forced them to create explicit content for websites like OnlyFans, as part of an organised crime group the Tates are alleged to have formed in early 2021. DIICOT identified six potential victims.[132][138] Social media rumours attributed Andrew Tate's arrest to pizza boxes shown in his response video to Greta Thunberg, which Romanian authorities denied.[139][67]
As of 5 January 2023, two potential victims had joined the case as civil parties and filed statements against the suspects.[140] On 7 January, one of the Tates’ lawyers said that the defense team had still not obtained a copy of the evidence presented by the prosecution to the judge. The lawyer also said that the Tate brothers had not been given an accurate translation during their hearing for the 30-day extension. He requested the opportunity to confront the accusers in court, and said that some of the six potential victims identified by DIICOT had not filed a complaint against the suspects.[141] Two women who have lived with the Tate brothers have publicly defended them,[142][143] and two of the six alleged victims identified by DIICOT, have denied that they were victimised.[144][145]
Asset seizures and appeal
Romanian authorities seized 29 assets, including 15 cars and more than 10 properties, as well as watches and sums of money, that belonged to the Tate brothers or their companies, totaling to almost $4 million.[146][147] If they are convicted, these assets will be forfeited to the state and used to pay civil and moral damages to any victims.[148] On 14 January 2023, the cars at the Tates' home were transported to a storage location.[149] On 11 December, a Romanian court rejected the request to return assets seized during the investigation.[150] On 8 January 2024, this decision was overturned by the Bucharest's Court of Appeal after successful appeal, with the court ordering a new trial over the seized assets.[151][152]
Rape and human trafficking charges
On 13 June 2023, DIICOT adjusted the charges from human trafficking to "human trafficking in continued form", a more serious charge.[153] One additional victim was identified, bringing the total count to seven.[154][8][9] On 20 June, the four accused were indicted on charges of rape, human trafficking, and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women. They continue to deny all charges and remain under investigation concerning money laundering and trafficking of minors.[10] Tate and his supporters also spread various conspiracy theories about these criminal charges.[155][156][157]
Pre-trial detention and restrictions
After an initial 24-hour pre-trial detention following the arrests, the judge prolonged their detention by 30 days.[132] The Tates appealed the extension, but the appeal was rejected on 10 January.[158][159] Under Romanian law, it can be prolonged for a maximum of 180 days.[160] In total, the four suspects, including the Tate brothers, were held in police custody from 29 December 2022 until 31 March 2023.[153]
On 20 January 2023, a Romanian court extended the brothers' pre-trial detention until 27 February;[161] the court's reasoning was based on a desire to safeguard the investigation, and avoid the Tates leaving the country.[162] On 25 January, while being taken for questioning at Romania's organised crime unit, Andrew said the case against him was "empty" and told reporters that "they know we have done nothing wrong".[163]
On 1 February, he appealed the decision to extend his detention. The appeal was rejected by the Bucharest Court of Appeal.[164] That same day, Tina Glandian, a lawyer who has previously represented Chris Brown and Mike Tyson, was added to the legal team. She released a public statement alleging that the situation constituted a "violation of international human rights".[165] On 21 February, a Romanian judicial institution once again prolonged the detention of the Tate brothers for an additional 30-day period.[166] Prosecutors alleged wiretaps of phone calls made by Tate to two associates, instructing them to lobby two Romanian right-wing politicians, George Simion and Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă, to support his release.[167]
On 14 March, their petition for bail was refused for the third time.[168] Subsequently, on 29 March, their detention period was lengthened until the end of April.[169][170] On 31 March, the Bucharest Court of Appeal overturned the previous court's decision, transitioning the brothers' pre-trial detention to house arrest, initially set until 29 April and later extended to the end of August.[171][172]
On 4 August, their house arrest was replaced with judicial control until 2 October, allowing the four accused to leave their house, but not Ilfov County.[173] On 28 September, the travel restriction was relaxed after an appeal, allowing him to travel within Romania.[174] The decision was overturned on appeal, but restrictions were again relaxed by a Romanian judge on 28 November.[175]
Online harassment and lawsuit
In February 2023, the legal team for the Tate brothers confirmed that a cease and desist letter was sent to at least one of the accusers in December 2022, threatening to sue her and her parents for $300 million over defamatory statements.[176][177]
Two of the accusers reportedly went into hiding after being targeted by an online harassment campaign, described as an attempt to "scare them into silence" by a "troll army". Senior legal counsel at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, who is advising the women, alleges Tate's following targeted her clients with thousands of online threats, including doxing the accusers, their relatives, as well as the use of private investigators.[11]
In July, the Tate brothers then filed a defamation lawsuit against one of the accusers, their parents and two other individuals, in Florida's Palm Beach County, seeking $5 million in damages. The Tates claim the five conspired to falsely accuse them of human trafficking and rape, costing them their freedom as well as income from social media and business ventures.[12][178]
^Shabazz, Daaim (2017). Triple Exclam!!! the Life and Games of Emory Tate, Chess Warrior. Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp Print Us. p. 257. ISBN978-0-9981180-9-3. Tate, Emory Andrew, III (son of Tate Jr.)
^Tate, Andrew (10 July 2022). The Worst Things About Being Rich. Rumble (video). Event occurs at 0:34. Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2022. I was born in Washington D.C.
^ abOjha, Adarsh (1 December 2022). "Andrew Tate:- What is Top G Andrew Tate's religion?". InsideSport.in. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2022. I was born in a Christian country. I was raised as a Christian and I've always been very respectful of Islam, and it's become more and more obvious to me, and more and more pertinent that Islam is the last religion on the planet.
^Andrew Tate - Andrew Tate: The Man Who Groomed the World?. BBC iPlayer. 31 August 2023. Event occurs at 38:04. Retrieved 18 December 2023. Reporter Matt Shea uncovers the truth behind notorious influencer Andrew Tate and his secretive, all-male society, the War Room.
^Drew, Sophie (10 August 2022). "Charities call for Orthodox Christian Andrew Tate to be removed from social media". Premier. Archived from the original on 29 December 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2022. Tate – who has previously defined himself as an Orthodox Christian and claimed to give more than £16,000 a month to the Romanian Orthodox Church – has already been banned from Twitter for his controversial views.
^Rugiero, Laurent (17 March 2014). "Nabil Becharef au 1er tour !" [Nabil Becharef in the first round!]. La Provence (in French). Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
^Rugiero, Laurent (17 March 2014). "Le rêve de Cyril Vetter a duré trois minutes" [Cyril Vetter's dream lasted three minutes]. La Provence (in French).
^"Grajš osvojil halo Tivoli in ček za 30 tisoč dolarjev" [Grajš won the Tivoli hall and a check for 30 thousand dollars]. 24UR (in Slovenian). Pop (Slovenian TV channel). 3 December 2012. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
^"Tate takes World title". International Sport Kickboxing Association. 7 June 2011. Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
^"IFS News, September 2008". International Kickboxing Federation. September 2008. Archived from the original on 7 January 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
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