Climate activist Greta Thunberg has responded to the news of social media influencer Andrew Tate's arrest with a typically sassy tweet. The former kickboxer was held alongside his brother, Tristan, and two other suspects while his house was raided in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on suspicion of human trafficking and rape.
Earlier in the week, Tate sparked a war of words with 19-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg when he shared a picture of himself standing next to a Bugatti and claimed he owned 33 cars. “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,” he tweeted, tagging Ms Thunberg.
She replied: “Yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalld***energy@getalife.com.”
Tate, 36, responded with a video that appeared to show pizza boxes from a Romanian takeaway chain, which is what reportedly led officers to raid his home. Now, Tate, his brother and two other people are being detained.
"This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes," Greta tweeted in response to the news this morning - sending social media users wild. "Frantically googling how to nominate someone for Nobel prize for a second time," one person said.
"Time to make a throne for yourself using recycled pizza boxes after today," another responded. "Greta Thunberg 2-0 Andrew Tate," a third added.
The tweet has already been seen more than 5.5 million times in less than an hour, with nearly 300,000 likes and more than 11,000 retweets.
“The four suspects … appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialised websites for a cost,” prosecutors said, according to the Reuters news agency. A lawyer for the brothers has reportedly confirmed their detention.
Since retiring from combat sports, Tate, 36, has received attention for his misogynistic online commentary. He gained notoriety in 2016 when he was removed from British TV show Big Brother over a video that appeared to show him hitting a woman with a belt.
In 2017, he was banned on Twitter for saying that women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted, but was reinstated last month.
Tate and his brother have been under investigation since April alongside two Romanian nationals. Footage circulated widely on social media appears to show Tate and his sibling being led away from a luxury villa. He moved to Romania five years ago.
Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) earlier issued a statement, but did not name the Tate brothers, stating that two British citizens and two Romanian citizens were suspected of being part of a criminal group focused on human trafficking. It also released a video of the raid, showing guns, knives, and money on display in one room.
