Andrew Tate is a male supremacist social media influencer who rose to prominence in summer 2022 after his most controversial clips went viral on social media. Tate preaches that women are men’s property and are fundamentally inferior to men. He is currently facing charges for rape and human trafficking in Romania.
About Andrew Tate
Andrew Tate is a male supremacist “alpha male” influencer who is known for his misogyny, transphobia and toxic presentation of masculinity. He is heavily influenced by the rhetoric, ideology and gamified moneymaking schemes of the pickup artist industry. Tate claims women are “intrinsically lazy,” “incapable of independent thought” and “the property of men.” He preaches the value of a male-dominated society with strict hierarchical gender roles where women are subservient and trans people shouldn’t exist.
In the mid-2010s, Andrew and his brother Tristan Tate began a webcam business where viewers would pay $4 a minute plus tips to watch models engage in sex acts. Tristan has admitted this business was “all a big scam” and models were encouraged to make false emotional appeals to trick their audience into giving them more money. This earned the brothers millions, which Tate used to fund the extravagant lifestyle he boasts about on social media that appeals to so many of his followers.
Following his kickboxing career and a brief stint on reality television, Tate amassed a modest following of tens of thousands, which he continued to grow through online appearances with key right-wing figures throughout the late 2010s.
Andrew Tate packages his hateful views in motivational messages of self-improvement with aspirational videos of himself in private jets surrounded by beautiful women. He finances these excursions by sexually exploiting women and taking advantage of his young audience’s insecurities to sell them merchandise, his line of “TopG” supplements and, for nearly $8,000, access to Tate’s “War Room,” a global network and Telegram channel where Tate and his affiliates offer their advice about masculinity, business and sex.
These products are promoted with hypermasculine statements that construct an urgent, imminent threat, including such pitches as “Join an elite few in the privilege, of owning a coveted TopG Exclusive. If you knew what was coming. You’d do anything to be on the right side of history.” This includes a $54.99 testosterone supplement called “Feared” and a $57 “Resist the slave mind” T-shirt advertised with the line, “Active resistance is the only way to win the war.”
More importantly, Tate sells online courses that promise to teach his students how to make money and attract women, which Tate uses to create a decentralized recruitment and content-creation apparatus where his students would pay him to post his clips on social media. Tate and his supporters exploited YouTube, Instagram and TikTok algorithms that push controversial content and disinformation to users.
He assures his audience that he is the only one telling them the truth about society and promises to show them how to “escape the matrix.” Male supremacist extremists have often used references to the film The Matrix to describe their perception that a feminist conspiracy runs society and keeps this reality hidden. Those who subscribe to this worldview see themselves as part of the elite few who can see the world for what it is and present themselves as the main characters capable of disrupting this all-powerful system. Tate has described the matrix as “a cabal of people who have mass influence over the world who are not people we elect or know their names.” He believes they force people to live in a false reality while exploiting their hard work. He claims they are using the judicial system to punish him for spreading messages that counter their narrative and are threatened by his influence.
In spring 2022, Andrew Tate went viral for his extreme brand of misogyny after he directed thousands of his supporters to inundate social media with his most controversial clips. This viral campaign ultimately resulted in Tate becoming one of the most Googled men that year. While he was soon banned by mainstream social media platforms for violating their terms of service, he signed deals with the low-moderation platforms Rumble and Gettr to share his content exclusively there. Additionally, his Twitter (now X) account was reinstated in November 2022 when Elon Musk took over the social media giant.
Since he went viral in 2022, extremists across the ideological spectrum have embraced Andrew Tate and his male supremacist message, including Radical Hebrew Israelites, white supremacists and misogynist incels. Even before his rapid rise on social media, Tate had substantial links to key figures on the far right.
In December 2022, Romanian authorities arrested Andrew Tate along with his brother Tristan and two of their associates. Tate was accused of using “physical violence and mental coercion” to sexually exploit a group of women and force them to produce pornography. They were charged with rape, human trafficking and forming an organized crime group and are also under investigation for allegedly trafficking minors and engaging in sexual acts with a minor.
In February 2025, high-level officials in the Trump administration repeatedly pushed Romanian authorities to lift the travel restrictions placed on the Tate brothers. Several weeks later, the brothers arrived in Florida where they will await their Romanian trial. Since arriving in the U.S., Andrew Tate allegedly choked and beat his ex-girlfriend, according to her lawsuit, and the Florida attorney general announced an unrelated criminal investigation of the Tate brothers.
In His Own Words
“If you neuter the native population of men, if you destroy their mentality to resist, if you tell them every single thing about the masculine is wrong … and then you import high-testosterone men from the Third World who don’t believe any of this garbage, who grew up in a society where they understand that the only way to succeed is to be a fearsome predator to a degree, what do you think is going to happen? Who is supposed to protect the sanctity of these nations[?] … These two actions of neutering the native populace and importing these high-testosterone Third Worlders are so at odds with each other. Is this purposeful?” — In an interview with Tucker Carlson, July 11, 2023
“A large part of this transsexual movement … is a deliberate attack on us and our senses because they are trying to convince us to ignore our eyes. … Once they can convince you that your senses are wrong, well, then you’re completely open to the slave programming.” — In an interview with Tucker Carlson, July 11, 2023
“They package it all together, LGBTQ. … I would argue that G and T are very different things. A gay man and someone who’s chopped their d— off are very different things. So, they package it all together. So now, because the spectrum of your enemy is so large — you have people who are complete, fully this way, you have people who we accept that are normal in society, we have no problem with gay people — and they put it all together … and they complicate the argument, and they mix it all together, and now you’re a bigot. And really, you just want your kids to be left alone.” — In an interview with “PBD Podcast,” June 12, 2023
“[In a marriage] I believe the woman is given to the man. I believe she is given away by the father. I believe she belongs to the man.” — In an interview with Piers Morgan, Oct. 7, 2022
“You can’t be responsible for something that doesn’t listen to you. You can’t be responsible for a dog if it doesn’t obey you, or a child if it doesn’t obey you, or a woman that doesn’t obey you.” — In an appearance on Barstool’s “BFFs” podcast, July 13, 2022
“The masculine perspective is you have to understand that life is war. It’s a war for the female you want. … It’s a war for the car you want. It’s a war for the money you want. It’s a war for status. It’s a war, masculine life is war.” — In an appearance on Stand Out TV, June 26, 2022
“Our body count is probably the number one most easiest way to judge the value of a female. … I think 99% of the world’s problems would be solved if females walked through life with their body count on their forehead.” — In an appearance on Stand Out TV, June 26, 2022
“If you put yourself in the position to be raped, you mist bare [sic] some responsibility” — Twitter post, Oct. 18, 2017
“Why would you be with a woman who’s not a virgin anyway? She is used goods. Second hand.” — In an interview with Love2Fight Magazine, Oct. 30, 2014
Background
Andrew Tate was born in Washington, D.C., in December 1986, with the full name Emory Andrew Tate III. He was the son of an alcoholic father, Emory Tate Jr., who was largely absent from his children’s lives. After his father cheated on his mother, the two divorced in 1997 and Andrew moved to Lutton, England, with his mother and two siblings. Tate frequently praises his father and appears to have internalized some of his faults as lessons on masculinity. Today he insists that men have a right to cheat on their partners and praises absent fathers, condemning those who become a “second mother” as harmful to their sons.
In 2007, Tate began his kickboxing career in England, where he won four world championships. He called himself “the Cobra,” a nickname he has incorporated into his branding today. Around this time, Tate met far-right extremist Tommy Robinson, an anti-Muslim radical and co-founder of the English Defence League, and the two formed a friendship. This friendship would later help Tate build relationships with other figures within the far right. In an in-depth profile on Tate’s background, BuzzFeed News reporters spoke to a gym owner who knew Tate during his kickboxing years who described how Tate would antagonize people to get attention. Tate would make controversial posts on kickboxing forums to capitalize on the increased attention they brought him — a strategy that was central to how he became an influencer more than a decade later. BuzzFeed reporters also spoke with a friend who knew Tate from school who remembered him as socially awkward with women and desperate for money and status.
His quest for attention continued with a couple stints on reality television. In 2016 he was cast on the U.K. version of the show Big Brother, where his show bio noted, “Andrew believes that a man should be able to sleep with as many women as he wants to, but that does not apply to women.” He only lasted a week on the show before producers decided to remove him after police informed them that Tate was being investigated for sexual assault and physical abuse.
The investigation stemmed from an alleged 2015 incident, when two women who worked for Tate’s pornographic webcam business, then based in Lutton, went to the police alleging Tate had raped one of them and strangled the other on five occasions, bursting the blood vessels in her neck. It took the police four years to share their investigation with the Crown Prosecution Service, who then declined to bring charges against Tate.
For this business, Andrew and Tristan initially recruited their girlfriends as models and claimed to have expanded to employing 75 models, though this number is likely an exaggeration. From the women’s labor, the brothers were able to earn millions.
Shortly after this investigation blocked his chances of expanding his reality TV fame, Tate moved to Romania with his brother Tristan in 2017. The brothers brought their webcam business, which Tate had referred to as “webcam pimping,” with them. In a now-deleted video, he explained his decision to move was related to Romania’s poor enforcement of laws against sexual violence. “Forty percent of the reason I moved to Romania was because rape laws are more lenient here,” Tate explained. “I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of being able to do what I want. I like being free.”
On another occasion, he described Romania as “a beautiful place,” adding: “There’s no feminists, there’s no open homosexuality. … No homosexual agenda. No feminists. … No immigrants or refugees which is great because it means no one gets stabbed.”
Products and schemes
Echoing the early-2000s era of pickup artists (PUAs), Andrew Tate built his empire on manipulative “get rich quick” schemes that prey on men who are insecure about their masculine status. Through various faux education courses, Tate exploits his students and uses them as a decentralized recruitment and content creation apparatus.
In 2018, Tate launched a $450 online course called the “Pimpin hoes Degree” (PhD) program. The course promised to teach men how to attract women by building an attractive Instagram page. The program offered lessons on the “sexual marketplace,” relationships, fitness and body language that would help subscribers become a “higher value” man and thus attract more women. According to Rolling Stone, course videos revealed Tate sharing strategies with his students on how to manipulate their partners into doing sex work. Leaked screenshots of 2021 messages between Tate and his associates show him discussing one of the alleged human-trafficking victims listed by Romanian prosecutors. The messages appear to show Tate bragging about manipulating the woman into doing sex work.
Building on this model, Tate then developed one of the central ventures of his enterprise, which is credited with his rise to infamy. Initially launched in 2021 as Hustlers University and then rebranded as The Real World in November 2022, this “financial education platform” promises to teach subscribers how to generate income online and “escape the Matrix” for a monthly fee of $49.99. The program includes lesson plans, informational videos, “mindset coaching” and other resources on topics like investing in cryptocurrency, drop shipping and social media marketing. The program is designed to appeal to a young audience. Miles Sonkin, who uses the pseudonym Iggy Semmelweis and has been accused of being one of the “masterminds” behind Tate’s extensive grooming enterprise, has stated the program is aimed at “school-age boys, 12-18.”
As part of their coursework, students are expected to edit and post four to six videos promoting Tate on social media every day. In an interview with Vice, one former student described how instructors would encourage them to go into “war mode” and skip sleep to produce these videos while isolating themselves from their friends and family. In a guide from the older iteration of the program obtained by the Guardian, students were taught to use controversy to manipulate TikTok’s algorithm and reach a wider audience. “What you ideally want is a mix of 60-70% fans and 40-30% haters,” the guide advised. “You want argument, you want war.”
While the program boasts that students will learn to make $10,000 monthly, most students don’t see a cent. For those already invested in the program, their best chance of earning money is through the affiliate program where they can earn a commission on new members they draw in. Individuals in this program are directed to make fan pages to promote Tate’s content. Once the pages reach 2,000 followers, they can then post about how much money they are making through The Real World and post affiliate links to recruit new members. However, many members fail to reach the required follower count and never make any money on this venture, despite spending countless hours creating content for Tate. Meanwhile, one report found Tate earned more than $4 million in crypto assets alone from this program as of May 2023.
Arrest and Enduring Influence
In December 2022, Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested in Bucharest, Romania, along with two of their associates. Romanian authorities have charged the group with rape, human trafficking and forming an organized criminal group, among other charges. According to an announcement from Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, Tate recruited victims with false promises of love and marriage — a common sex-trafficking tactic — and then forced victims to participate in pornography “through physical force and mental coercion.”
The seven identified victims were allegedly brought to buildings where they were kept under constant surveillance, intimidated and forced into debt. In October 2021, one victim claimed she was punished with physical violence after she refused to continue making pornography and asked to leave the building. That same month, one of Tate’s associates allegedly hacked the social media account of one of the victims and posted sexually explicit photos without her consent to punish her for failing to meet the group’s demands. Romanian authorities are also investigating separate charges of trafficking minors and money laundering.
Andrew Tate and the other accused have denied all charges. After he was first arrested, Tate blamed “the ruling elite” and “the matrix” in a series of tweets. Tate previously accused “agents of the matrix” when social media platforms deplatformed him. In August 2023 the Tate brothers were released from house arrest as they awaited their trial. However, in March 2024 they were once again arrested by Romanian authorities after a male supremacist “alpha male” livestreamer, Adin Ross, revealed Tate’s plans to flee the country. Since his arrest, Tate, his associates and fans have been threatening the women who have come forward with these allegations. Shortly after his arrest, Tate’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to the American accuser, threatening to sue her for $300 million if she didn’t retract her statements to the Romanian police. The following month, Tate directed an associate to call the woman and threaten her: “make it clear to her and her whole family that she will be bankrupt for life for lying if she doesn’t withdraw the testimony.” This conversation was wiretapped while Tate was still in jail and described in court documents.
Tate followed through on his threat in July 2023 when he and his brother sued the two accusers as well as their family members and friend, seeking $5 million for defamation. Shortly after, the Tates’ lawyer, Joseph McBride, publicly shared personal information about the two accusers with his 150,000 followers on X that was viewed over 13,000 times in just a few hours. McBride also revealed the names of the women and other private details while appearing on the “Fresh & Fit” podcast. These incidents contributed to an on- and offline campaign of harassment and intimidation by Tate’s supporters.
Several supporters even went to the homes of the alleged victims’ family members and took pictures. In a court filing requesting that the court protect the women’s identities, their lawyers cited these incidents, which they described as “a calculated strategy of harassment and intimidation meant to bully these witnesses out of cooperating in the Romanian criminal case.”
In addition to threatening his accusers, Tate has also pressured women to publicly support him. In another wiretapped conversation from his time in jail, Tate directed women — including some who were listed as victims by Romanian authorities — to publicly speak out in his defense. In an additional wiretapped phone call, Tate can be heard praising videos of his employees defending him and directing his associate to continue to inundate social media with more clips. “Over and over again, different ones,” he explained. “We need the girls to cry, to be frustrated, angry.”
Despite his arrest, Andrew Tate continues to have a stifling grip on young men and boys. In the year following his arrest, his following on X more than doubled to 8.5 million.
Educators around the world have been sounding the alarm over his dangerous influence on students. Several teachers have noted that male students are directly quoting Tate, repeating his sexist views, making more rape jokes, mimicking the hand signal associated with him, bullying other students and disrupting class to express their support for Tate. According to one survey, as many as one-third of young men view Tate positively.
The high prevalence of these views may have dangerous consequences. One survey found children exposed to misogynistic content like Tate’s are five times more likely to believe physically hurting someone was more acceptable than those who hadn’t. Exposure to sexism and experiencing sexual harassment negatively impacts girls’ education. Girls who have internalized sexist views about their own capabilities have poorer grades and motivation in school.
Tate’s content has been deliberately targeted at and designed to appeal to teenage boys. Young people at this age are particularly susceptible to these ideas. Adolescence is a developmental period that can be marked by great loneliness and stress. Young people are increasingly seeking independence and looking to peers and other influences as they begin to form their own identities. At the same time, many young people at this age also lack the social emotional skills to effectively empathize with other people. Andrew Tate and others like him exploit this vulnerability and offer simple solutions and conspiracy theories to explain complex issues.