YouTube has become the latest platform to remove social media influencer Andrew Tate for violating its policies. The Google-owned social media site took action following Meta’s decision to ban him from Facebook and Instagram.
The former kickboxer rose to fame in 2016 when he was removed from TV show Big Brother over a video which appeared to depict him attacking a woman. He went on to gain notoriety online – with first, Twitter banning him for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted.
Andrew Tate’s social media content – much of it promoting misogyny and targeting women – has come to prominence in recent months, with many raising concerns about the real-world effect it could have. A Panorama investigation found how social media platforms’ algorithms were recommending more and more misogyny to a troll account.
In one YouTube video, during which he was interviewed by another YouTuber, he said he was “absolutely a misogynist”, adding: “I’m a realist and when you’re a realist you’re sexist. There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist.”
Later in the same video he called women “intrinsically lazy” and said there was “no such thing as an independent female”.
In a different video, Mr Tate said: “If I have responsibility over her, then I must have a degree of authority.”
He added: “You can’t be responsible for a dog if it doesn’t obey you.”
Google, which owns YouTube stated: “We terminated channels associated with Andrew Tate for multiple violations of our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service, including our hate speech policy.
“If a channel is terminated, the uploader is unable to use, own or create any other YouTube channels.”
TikTok has also banned an account belonging to Mr Tate as part of an ongoing investigation to remove content that violates its policies, stating that misogyny is a ‘hateful ideology’ that is not tolerated on TikTok.
On Instagram, Tate had 4.7 million followers at the time his account was removed.
Meta said it had removed the kickboxing star from its platforms for violating its policies on dangerous organisations and individuals.
But the focus had primarily been on TikTok, where videos about Mr Tate using the #AndrewTate hashtag, have been viewed more than 12.7 billion times. However, this number represents not just videos of Tate and his supporters – it also includes videos made by people criticising the influencer.
Joe Mulhall, director of research at ‘Hope Not Hate’, said Mr Tate “poses a genuine threat to young men, radicalising them towards extremism misogyny, racism and homophobia”.
He added: “We’ve provided significant evidence to the major social media platforms, including Meta, about his activity and why he must be removed.”
