Andrew Tate, an internet influencer and professional kickboxer best known for his misogynistic takes on women, hetero relationships, and what it takes to truly be “the top G”, a term he seems to only use to define men who act and look exactly like him.

On paper, Tate seems like an ideal role model for young boys. He’s a retired professional kickboxer and billionaire who rose from a poor financial situation in Luton, England.

His hashtag on Tiktok, #andrewtate, has 16.8 billion views, and in July the UK had more Google searches for his name than for Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian. He even has his own private online academy called Hustler’s University, where he charges $49.99 a month for access to “an online skill-focused community providing education and coaching to over 100,000 students,”. The website is clearly a pyramid scheme, charging it’s subscribers for access to nonsensical lessons provided by underqualified “professors”.

Sadly, Andrew Tate insists on using his platform to spread nothing but misogynistic and genuinely scary viewpoints on things like women, rape, the patriarchy, and more. Back in March, he was fairly harmless for the most part, he didn’t have many followers and if you asked the average person who he was, they would have no clue. Then around July, his viewers and platform skyrocketed.

Prior to his recent burst to fame, Andrew Tate asked his viewers to “flood the internet” with videos of him, specifically suggesting the most controversial. Within a month, his plan worked, and his videos were being reposted and talked about in both positive and negative light, majorly boosting his viewership.

While these instructions suggest Tate may not actually believe in the views as he is suggesting, but is actually a “shock jock”, shocking his audience to obtain views and money, the problem still remains: young men are watching his videos and taking his advice seriously, resulting in them spreading the ideas even further. This can be dangerous, especially for the young women they are surrounded by.

Andrew Tate has been quoted saying things like, “rape victims must bear some responsibility for their attacks”, and “Women belong in the home, can’t drive, and are a man’s property,”. Young impressionable boys hearing these things mindlessly follow in hopes of being the next Top G, this is evident on most social media platforms, especially TikTok and Instagram.

Scrolling through a FYP (For you page), it won’t take long to come across one of his many fan pages, most of which exclusively post content of their favorite “Top G” quotes. Opening the comment section, it’s evident that the app has no shortage of misogynistic men and even several women, all seeming to have gathered to comment about their dislike for women and their “illogical” thoughts.

Andrew Tate, who fled the UK to avoid sexual assault, abuse, and rape charges, was finally banned from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Tiktok. There was no need to ban him from Twitter because it had already been done back in 2017, after frequently criticizing the #MeToo movement.

Shortly after his ban, he posted a video on his account on the website rumble.com, an alternative to YouTube used mostly by politicians and celebrities in a similar situation to Tate, banned or shunned off the most popular social media apps. He titled it “My Final Message”, and he starts off by talking about how society accepts and tolerates those of different genders and sexual orientations but refuses to accept him. The point he is attempting to make is unclear but it is clear he feels targeted, an ironic take considering his entire platform was based on attacking others. He then goes on to talk about his “respect for women,” an obvious lie and weak attempt at backtracking. Andrew Tate also goes on to say most of the videos of him were taken out of context.

In what context his opinions on rape victims would be considered reasonable, is not mentioned.

He very clearly said while guest starring on the podcast “Full Send”, that “probably 40% of the reason” he moved was to evade rape charges. He then went further to add later on in the same podcast, “I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free,” in reference to Romania’s extremely relaxed laws on rape.

Now that Tate’s platforms have finally been diminished, it’s already evident his couple months of fame are nearing an end. This, however, doesn’t take away from the toxic impact he has already made on so many young minds. Even if they don’t realize it, people carry the messages they see on social media with them every day. Andrew Tate was allowed to speak his mind for way too long and now that he is officially off of social media, hopefully this makes way for more positive influencers to attempt to reverse his damage.