Andrew Tate

Emory Andrew Tate III (born December 14, 1986) is an American-British Internet personality and former professional kickboxer. Following his kickboxing career, Tate began offering paid courses and memberships through his website and later rose to fame as an online influencer. Tate's misogynistic commentary on social media has resulted in his bans from several platforms.

Early life

Tate was born on December 14, 1986, in +more'>Washington, D. C. , and raised in Luton, England. His African-American father, Emory Tate, was a chess International Master. His mother worked as a catering assistant. He is multiracial. Tate learned to play chess at the age of five and competed in adult tournaments as a child.

Career

Kickboxing

In 2005, Tate started practicing boxing and martial arts. In November 2008, Tate was ranked 7th best light-heavyweight kickboxer in Britain by the International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA). +more In 2009, while employed in selling television advertising, he won the British ISKA Full Contact Cruiserweight championship in Derby, England, and was ranked number one in his division in Europe. Though he had won 17 of his 19 fights, he said it was his first belt and title. In 2011, Tate won his first ISKA world title in a rematch against Jean-Luc Benoit via knockout, having previously lost to Benoit by decision. In December 2012, Tate lost the Enfusion championship tournament to Franci Grajš. Before his loss, he had won his previous 18 fights, all by knockout, and was ranked second best light-heavyweight kickboxer in the world. In 2013, Tate won his second ISKA world title in a 12-round match against Vincent Petitjean, making him world champion in two different weight divisions. He has since retired from combat sports.

Big Brother and online ventures

In 2016, while a guest on the seventeenth season of Big Brother, Tate came under scrutiny for his homophobic and racist comments on Twitter. After the release of a video in which Tate appeared to beat a woman with a belt, Tate was removed from the show after only six days of participation. +more Both Tate and the woman said that they were friends and that the actions in the video were consensual.

Tate's website offers training courses on accumulating wealth and "male-female interactions". According to the website, he also operates a webcam studio using girlfriends as employees. +more Tate and his brother started the webcam business, employing as many as 75 webcam models to sell "fake sob stories" to male callers, claiming to have made millions of dollars doing so. Tate stated that the business model is a "total scam".

Tate operates Hustler's University, a platform where members pay a monthly membership fee to receive instruction on topics such as dropshipping and cryptocurrency trading. The platform employed an affiliate marketing program, where members received a commission for recruiting others to the platform. +more Tate became highly prominent during 2022 by encouraging members of Hustler's University to post large numbers of videos of him to social media platforms in an effort to maximize engagement. As of August 2022, its website had amassed over 100,000 subscribers. That same month, 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 engagement pyramid.

Social media presence

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. In 2017, he was criticized for tweeting that depression "isn't real".

Online, Tate initially became known among far-right circles through appearances on InfoWars and acquaintances with far-right figures such as Paul Joseph Watson, Jack Posobiec, and Mike Cernovich. Tate became highly popular during summer of 2022, surpassing both Donald Trump and COVID-19 in Google searches in July. +more By August, Tate was described by Rabbil Sikdar in The Independent as a "cult-like figure" to "young directionless men" and boys who support his anti-feminist views. Tate has described himself as "absolutely a sexist" and "absolutely a misogynist". He has stated that women "belong in the home", "can't drive", and are "given to the man and belong to the man", and claimed that men prefer dating 18- and 19-year-olds because they have had sex with fewer men.

The White Ribbon Campaign, a nonprofit opposing male-on-female violence, considers Tate's commentary "extremely misogynistic" and its possible long-term effects on his young male audience "concerning". Hope not Hate, an anti-extremism advocacy group, has commented that Tate's social media presence might present a "dangerous slip road into the far-right" for his audience. +more 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". He further stated that he plays a "comedic character" and claimed that people believed "absolutely false narratives" about him.

Social media bans

Three of Tate's Twitter accounts were suspended at different times. In 2021, an account that he created to evade his previous ban was verified by Twitter contrary to their policies. +more The account was subsequently permanently suspended, and Twitter said the verification occurred in error. In August 2022, following an online campaign to deplatform him, Tate was permanently banned from Facebook, and Instagram, where he had 4. 7 million followers. Meta claimed he had violated their policy on "dangerous organizations and individuals". TikTok, where videos featuring his name as a hashtag have been viewed 13 billion times, removed his account as well after determining that it violated their policies on "content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanizes an individual or a group". Shortly thereafter, YouTube also suspended his channel citing multiple violations, including hate speech and COVID-19 misinformation, and Tate subsequently deleted his channel on Twitch.

Tate responded to the bans, saying that, while most of his comments were taken out of context, he takes responsibility for how they were received. Boxer and social media personality Jake Paul denounced Tate's sexism, but criticized the bans as censorship. +more According to media watchdog group Media Matters for America, Tate's content continued to circulate on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok after the bans via fan accounts. Following the bans, Tate moved to Rumble, which briefly became the top app on the App Store, and Gettr.

Personal life

In October 2022, Tate announced on his Gettr account that he had converted to Islam. A video of Tate praying at a mosque in Dubai, UAE, went viral.

Criminal investigation

On April 11, 2022, Tate's house was raided by the Romanian police after the U. S. +more embassy alerted them that an American woman might be held at the property. The investigation was later taken over by Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism and expanded to include human trafficking and rape allegations. On April 27, the Romanian police said that no person had been charged or arrested in the case. The investigation is ongoing as of mid-2022. Tate has denied any wrongdoing.

Kickboxing record

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Mixed martial arts record

Professional record

|- |Win |align=center| 2-1-0 |Shane Kavanagh |KO (punches) |Ultimate Warrior Challenge 13 | |align=center|1 |align=center|3:00 |Essex, United Kingdom | |- |Loss |align=center|1-1-0 |Reza Meldavian |Decision (unanimous) |Ultimate Warrior Challenge 4 | |align=center|3 |align=center|5:00 |Essex, United Kingdom | |- |Win |align=center|1-0-0 |Matthew Wilkins |Decision (unanimous) |Ultimate Warrior Challenge 3 | |align=center|2 |align=center|5:00 |Essex, United Kingdom | |}

Amateur record

|- |Win |align=center|2-1-0 |Luke Barnatt |Decision (unanimous) |Ultimate Warrior Challenge 12 | |align=center|3 |align=center|5:00 |Essex, United Kingdom | |- |Loss |align=center|1-1-0 |William Morley |Decision (unanimous) |Ultimate Warrior Challenge 2 | |align=center|2 |align=center|5:00 |Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom |

|- |Win |align=center|1-0-0 |Lee Mayo |Submission (guillotine choke) |Ultimate Warrior Challenge 1 | |align=center|2 |align=center|1:05 |Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom | |}

Notes