The Epidemic of Internet Incel Culture and Andrew Tate

Over the past twenty years, as technology has developed,
the way we communicate has drastically changed.
Today, someone could become famous from something
as insignificant as a Tweet or comment that gains traction and
goes viral. Those who want to be influencers can take advantage
of this and become a celebrity seemingly overnight.
Though many of these influencers do have a positive impact on
social media, as exemplified by growing movements like the
MeToo movement (see “#MeToo: Where is it now?” pg. ?) and
the body positivity movement, there have been others that use
their platform to spread very harmful and offensive rhetoric.
One influencer that has risen to new heights because of his less
than-savory commentary on women and their role in society is
Andrew Tate. Born in Washington D.C in 1986, the social media
personality started his career in kickboxing when he was fifteen
years old, becoming a respected player with awards including the
84.5 kg International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) British
Cruiserweight Title, and the 81.5 kg ISKA British Full-Contact
Light Heavyweight Golden Belt Title. However, it wasn’t until
2016 that Tate got his first taste of mainstream fame.
It was revealed in 2016 that Tate would be joining the reality
TV show, Big Brother. The show is a reality game in which
contestants live on a set that resembles a house. They are
constantly under video surveillance. However, after just five days
on Big Brother, Tate was removed from the production because a
video of him brutally attacking a woman had been released to the
public. Tate also went on to tweet that women should “bear
responsibility” for being sexually assaulted, a comment which
ultimately resulted in him being banned from Twitter.
This was not Tate’s first time being violent towards women
though, prior to his appearance on Big Brother, he had been
arrested in the United Kingdom in 2015 while under investigation
for rape and sexual assault. Though he was never formally charged
with these crimes, multiple women had accused him of being
violent towards them, with one even saying that he strangled her.
At this time, Tate was also running a webcam business out of
Luton, where he was accused of assaulting the women who
worked for him. One woman told VICE News, “Me and another
girl would wake up in the morning with these, like, red, I can only
describe them as freckles around our eyes. It was from when he
choked me so hard that my blood vessels had literally just burst.”
About a year after appearing and being removed from Big
Brother, Tate moved to Romania, explaining that he did so
because “corruption is accessible for everybody” in the eastern
European country. However, Tate wasn’t widely known until this
past year in 2022, when he became notorious on the social media
app TikTok, for saying revolting and disturbing things about
women and the way he views them. Tate quickly grew a
following, the majority of whom were young men, as many began
to openly agree with him and appeared to become emboldened in
their misogyny.
Tate even went on to create his own university where he stated
that he would teach men how to gain copious amounts of money,
become skilled in talking to women, and overall become what he
deemed “alpha males”. Although the so-called “Hustlers
University” appears to operate on a business model similar to that
of a pyramid scheme, many signed up to attend the school,
garnering Tate a revenue of over eleven million dollars.
Tate has still been a prominent figure on the internet over the
past few months but in the last couple of weeks, he has been facing
mounting backlash from the public. VICE News published another
article that included an audio message sent by Andrew Tate to a
woman that he raped. Tate said, “Am I a bad person because the
more you didn’t like it the more I enjoyed it. I loved how much
you hated it, it turned me on.” He continued on by saying, “Are
you seriously offended, that I strangled you a little bit? You didn’t
pass out, chill out.” The woman who received this message, whom
the internet is calling Amelia, was raped by Tate in 2013 but never
spoke out against him because other women that had were shut
down and told by officials that Tate wouldn’t be prosecuted for his
actions. She went on to tell VICE News that she is “struggling
every day” because of Tate’s growing fame and the possibility of
him retaliating against her, but refuses to hide her story if it
means she could help stop other women from being hurt the way
she was. This audio message isn’t the only thing Tate has been in the
news for in the last couple of weeks, though. Tate was arrested on
December 29 after his home in Romania was raided by local
authorities. He and his brother Tristan were both sentenced to
thirty days in jail until authorities decide whether to prosecute
them on charges of human trafficking and forming an organized
crime group. If found guilty, they could face anywhere from
twenty years to life in prison. Though the authorities have denied
this, many people on the internet believe that Tate was located by
the authorities because he posted a photo of him in a red robe
holding a pizza box from a local restaurant after he had gotten into
a Twitter feud with climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
Since their arrest, Tate and his brother have been held in jail
and will continued to be imprisoned until the future of their case is
decided. Despite his arrest, Tate’s supporters continued
to claim that he has been detained and jailed without evidence, and that he
is innocent of the crimes that he is charged with. The investigation
into Andrew Tate is currently ongoing in Romania, and this is a developing story.