Why did YouTube ban influencer Andrew Tate?

YouTube has banned influencer Andrew Tate for violating its policies. The Google-owned social media site took action following Meta’s decision to ban Mr Tate from Facebook and Instagram.

The former kickboxer rose to fame in 2016 when he was removed from the TV show Big Brother over a video that appeared to depict him attacking a woman. He went on to gain notoriety online – with Twitter banning him for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted, reports BBC.

At the time of his removal from Big Brother, in 2016, Mr Tate said the controversial video had been edited, calling it “a total lie trying to make me look bad”.

Google, which owns YouTube, told reporters: “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.”

Mr Tate’s YouTube channels had more than a million followers between them.

‘Hateful ideology’

TikTok has also banned an account belonging to Mr Tate as part of an ongoing investigation to remove content that violates its policies.

A TikTok spokesperson told reporters: “Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok.

“We’ve been removing violative videos and accounts for weeks, and we welcome the news that other platforms are also taking action against this individual.”

On Instagram, Tate had 4.7 million followers at the time his account was removed. That number had grown rapidly from around one million followers in June.

Meta said it had removed the kickboxing star from its platforms for violating its policies on dangerous organizations and individuals, but did not provide further details.

Mr Tate has drawn criticism online for his comments, particularly from UK advocacy group Hope Not Hate, which welcomed Meta’s ban last week.

Joe Mulhall, director of research at the group, said Mr Tate “poses a genuine threat to young men, radicalizing 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.”

‘Absolutely a misogynist’

Videos about Mr Tate have proved popular across social media platforms, particularly on TikTok where videos using the #AndrewTate hashtag have been viewed more than 12.7 billion times.

But this number represents not just videos of Tate and his supporters – it also includes videos made by people criticizing the influencer.

On YouTube, some of his most popular videos have had millions of views.

In one 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.”

This article has been posted by a News Hour Correspondent. For queries, please contact through [email protected]
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