[ad_1]
His fans call him the king of toxic masculinity.
Tate’s content quickly spread on social media this summer, garnering millions of views and raising concerns about the impact on boys and young men who encounter it. After seeing his popularity surge in recent months, he boasted about his reach.
Tate is now banned from TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
In a statement to The Washington Post, a TikTok representative said Tate’s account was removed for violating the company’s policies, which prohibit “content that attacks, threatens, incites violence or otherwise dehumanizes an individual or group” based on attributes , including gender. Meta said it removed Tate’s official Facebook and Instagram accounts, citing policies against dangerous organizations and individuals.
Tate, a 35-year-old American-born, British-raised, Romanian resident who runs an online “education and coaching” program called Hustler’s University, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Other social media influencers — along with several organizations that support survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence — called for him to be kicked off the social media platforms. Hope Not Hate, a UK-based group which launched a petition calling for Tate to be de-platformed, described him as dangerous.
“The effect that Tate’s brand of vicious misogyny can have on young male audiences is deeply disturbing,” Hope Not Hate said. “Its content has been widely praised by his fans for bringing back ‘traditional masculinity.’ But we also know that misogyny can be a gateway to other extreme and discriminatory views.
The group noted the Daily Beast’s report that Tate’s home in Romania was raided in April as part of a human trafficking investigation. No arrests have been made and Tate has denied wrongdoing.
Tate first gained notoriety in 2016 when he was evicted from reality TV show Big Brother, the BBC reported, after a video appeared to show him punching a woman. The couple later said his actions were consensual. In 2017, he caused an online furore after tweeting that women should take personal responsibility and protect themselves from sexual assault.
In the thread posted in response to sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, he wrote: “If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you should [bear] some responsibility. I’m not saying it’s okay to be raped. Twitter permanently suspended his account as a result, NBC News reported.
Tate initially had a following among far-right social media circles, NBC News reported. He dined in 2019 with Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson and “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiek; Mike Cernovich, another conspiracy theorist, called him a friend. He has made several appearances on Infowars.
But in recent months, Tate has gone mainstream as videos and podcast interviews with him have appeared on social media and he has climbed Google searches. By August, he had more than 4 million followers on Instagram; videos tagged with his name have been viewed 12.7 billion times.
His sudden ubiquity didn’t happen organically, the Guardian reports. Paying members of Hustler’s University were directed to bombard social media platforms with his videos, selecting the most controversial to boost engagement in what experts described to the news channel as algorithm manipulation. Among the videos that went viral was one in which he advised his followers to “hit, slap, grab, choke” women in the bedroom and another in which he said he dates 18- and 19-year-olds because he’s more easy to leave an “imprint” on them.
Many of the videos that have attracted viewers on TikTok appear to have been posted by Tate’s followers. A TikTok spokesperson told The Post: “Our investigation into this content is ongoing, and we continue to remove abusive accounts and videos that promote misogyny and other hateful behavior.”
In response to criticism of his comments, Tate said in an interview with NBC News that he was playing an “online hero” and was teaching men to “avoid toxic people in general.”
“Has nothing to do [with] hatred of women,” he told the publication.
Still, Tate’s influence caused enough alarm that an Instagram account aimed at classroom teachers created a guide for turning his views on students. Groups aimed at helping survivors of domestic abuse say leaving his comments on social media platforms normalizes misogyny and abuse.
Zainab Ghulamali, policy and public affairs manager at Women’s Aid UK, told the Daily Mail, “Making derogatory comments and videos about the abuse of women is as dangerous as it is unacceptable: it normalizes the misogynistic and sexist attitudes that underlie of all violence against women and girls.
“Sexist actions and language that reinforce women’s inequality have been tolerated for too long,” she added. “It is vital that we all challenge these deep-seated misogynistic attitudes that normalize women to be emotionally abused, belittled and controlled, as well as physically harmed.”
[ad_2]
Source link