On December 29th, Andrew Tate, 36, the misogynist influencer who's videos on social media have been captivating young men in the US for close to a year now, was arrested in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, by law enforcement on charges of rape and human trafficking. Andrew's brother, Tristan, 34, and two women--Georgiana Naghel, 28, and Luana Radu, 32--were also arrested on the same charges. These charges are particularly ironic for Tate as he has noted that his reason for moving to Romania was because "rape laws are more lenient there."
But the arrest should come at no surprise to Tate as he told the Daily Mirror in March that he, along with his brother Tristan, once operated a "total scam" business in which 75 women were paid to talk to men via webcam for $4/minute, cavalierly adding that they would often pocket most of the money. Tate was even more open on The Fresh & Fit Podcast, telling hosts that the same business, including 75 sex workers, earned him $600,000 last year.
That's Tate's brand: trashy, yet expensive.
Often filmed with scantily clad models and exotic sports cars, smoking a cigar in his bathrobe, the implication--both directly and indirectly--is that, by following his advice, you could have a lifestyle that looks like his. And over the past year, his angry diatribes and shady-if-not-illegal advice for "entrepreneurs" have gotten increasingly more popular amongst boys and young men, with numerous clips going viral on TikTok. During that same time, middle and high school teachers have sounded the alarm on a major uptick in sexual harassment and sexist hate-speech in their classrooms by male students.
Because of the new and stunning data, Tate's social media accounts were banned across all major platforms. However, Twitter--now under the control of Elon Musk--recently reinstated his account, which had actually been removed in 2017 when, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations, he tweeted, "If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must bare [sic] some responsibility."
"If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must bare [sic] some responsibility." --Andrew Tate tweet, 2017
In a translated press release from Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime & Terrorism, or DIICOT, the Tates conned victims into believing that they were interested in genuine relationship. Once the connection was strong enough, they would transport them to live in houses that were under 24-hour surveillance and, under threats of violence, force them to act in pornographic videos, which were then sold on the internet.
According to the report, the investigation has rendered 6 female victims, one of whom alleges that she was raped.
Rebecca Jennings, Senior Correspondent for The Goods at Vox, points out that his recent internet popularity has also made him the face of several internet stereotypes, including: "the anti-feminist capitalizing on the Me Too backlash, the angry dude with a podcast mic, and the guy shilling for scammy pyramid scheme-adjacent businesses."
Because of this, he is extremely easy to make fun of, and the fact that he walks himself into so many situations where he is immediately destroyed is a testament to his narcissism. For example, on December 27th, he tweeted at teenage climate activist, Greta Thunberg, in an attempt to brag about his extensive car collection, pointing out the negative impact his cars have on the environment.
"Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,” Tate said in his tweet, to which Thunberg replied, “yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com." [Fun Fact: Greta's response is now the 4th most-liked tweet of all time!]
But it was Tate's response to Greta that has been the talk of the town in recent, with information circulating that the pizza box in Tate's response video is what alerted authorities to his whereabouts before his subsequent arrest. However, according to Romanian law enforcement officials, this was not the case as they had been investigating the brothers [and their two female accomplices] since April 2022 when the four drew attention of authorities by flaunting a lavish lifestyle on social media that "didn't keep with their financial situation."
Regardless, Greta's tweet, "this is what happens when you don't recycle your pizza boxes," is still hilarious.
In a video of his arrest, Tate can be heard saying, "The matrix has attacked me." If you're familiar with QAnon or the "manosphere", you're probably already familiar with the "red pill" concept that's become synonymous with a set of right-wing neoreactionary beliefs:
>Feminism has gone too far
>"Woke-ism" is a serious moral threat to personal freedom
>Democracy and democratic institutions are inherently suspect
The investigation is currently ongoing and, for now, the four accused remain in Romanian jail [for 30 days].
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