With his tattoos, designer stubble, kimono and cigar, to the casual scroller Andrew Tate seems almost a parody of a “bro Influencer”, peddling an absurdist machismo. Yet after his arrest last week in Romania on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group, both the seriousness of his dogma and the size of his support has become disturbingly apparent.
Tate was banned from Twitter back in 2017 for misogyny, including saying victims of sexual violence should bear some responsibility for the acts; TikTok and YouTube soon followed. But cast out online, and in exile in Bucharest overseeing his “camgirl” business, his popularity only grew as supporters flooded social media. After Elon Musk reinstated his Twitter account in November, within a month he had 4.3 million followers.
