Controversial influencer Andrew Tate has been banned from Facebook and Instagram, Meta confirmed to CBS News on Friday.
Tate, 35, was taken off both platforms for violating Meta’s policies on dangerous organizations and individuals, according to Meta. According to the BBC, the former professional kickboxer had 4.7 million followers on Instagram before the ban.
Discussing banning a Twitch stream with popular streamer Adin Ross, Tate said he doesn’t know exactly why he was banned from the platforms and he trusts there is “due process”.
“I’m not angry with them in any way,” he said. “It’s not a big loss for me. It’s something I don’t use too often. But I understand their position.”
During Adin Ross’ Twitch stream, Andrew Tate revealed he allegedly doesn’t know what caused his Instagram and Facebook accounts to be suspended today pic.twitter.com/cjHT24BMWe
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) August 19, 2022
Tate first rose to fame as a contestant on Big Brother (UK) in 2016, when he was removed from the show over a video that appeared to show him assaulting a woman. He said the video had been edited and was “a total lie trying to make me look bad,” the BBC reported.
Since then, he has been known worldwide for expressing misogynist views and criticizing women on various platforms. He was suspended under his controversial statements Twitter in 2017 for stating that women “bear the responsibility” for sexual assault amid allegations of disgraced Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein. He’s also called women “inherently lazy” and even explained how a man should have “authority” over a woman he’s dating.
In recent years he has become a prominent figure for audiences on TikTok and YouTube – two sites that are overwhelmingly popular with teenagers.
While an account linked to Tate on TikTok has been permanently suspended, CBS News learned Friday, the company says it is continuing to step up enforcement of videos of Tate expressing hateful ideologies. These videos were uploaded from different accounts. Videos with the hashtag #andrewtate have more than 13 billion views on TikTok.
“Misphobia is a hateful ideology that will not be tolerated on TikTok,” a company spokesman told CBS News in a statement. “Our investigation of this content continues as we continue to remove accounts and videos that violate infractions and take steps to strengthen our enforcement, including our detection models, against this type of content.”
CBS News has also reached out to Google, where Tate has an active YouTube channel with more than 750,000 subscribers, to see if it plans to take any action but hasn’t received an immediate response.
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Christopher Brito