Why has Andrew Tate been banned from Facebook and Instagram?

Social media influencer Andrew Tate has been banned from Facebook and Instagram after Meta, the company that owns both platforms, found that he had violated their policies.

The former kickboxer has gained notoriety online in recent weeks with a series of increasingly provocative and misogynistic statements, building a self-proclaimed alpha male persona. In June he had around one million Instagram followers but that number had soared to 4.7 million at the time of his ban.

Why has Meta removed Andrew Tate from its sites?

Speaking to The Independent, a spokesperson for Meta confirmed that Tate had been removed for “violating its policies on “Dangerous Individuals and Organisations”. That section of the company’s guidelines makes reference to dehumanising and hateful speech in their definition of Tier 1 offenses.

“We remove praise, substantive support and representation of Tier 1 entities, as well as their leaders, founders or prominent members.”

It would appear that Tate has fallen foul of Meta’s rules here but it is far from the first time that concerns have been raised about his content and the sexist principles that he espouses. Only last week the charity White Ribbon, which focuses on male violence against women, warned that Tate’s “extremely misogynistic” language could have “concerning effects on his young audience.

White Ribbon called for TikTok to act and remove videos that feature Tate’s misogynistic comments from the platform. Tate has his own account on the platform but most of his prominence comes from others sharing their own videos of his comments, which has fuelled his rise.

Videos featuring the hashtag #AndrewTate have received 12.7 billion views.

Tate banned after a string of controversies

The influence that Tate wields over his followers became particularly apparent this week when radio presenter Abbie Chatfield revealed that she had received abusive messages from his supporters.

“I’m getting DMs from what appears to be early teen boys, saying ‘I hope Andrew Tate destroys you,’” she told Australian talk show The Project.

After his kickboxing career ended he appeared in Big Brother in the UK but was removed from the show after hitting a woman with a belt. Tate claimed that his actions were consensual.

Shortly after this incident he courted controversy again when he, in the midst of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, insisted that rape survivors should “bear responsibility” for being attacked.

In an interview with a YouTuber he admitted that he was “absolutely a misogynist” and claiming that there is “no such thing as an independent female.”

“I’m a realist and when you’re a realist you’re sexist,” he said. “There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist.”