Meet Andrew Tate, ‘king of toxic masculinity’ detained in Romania on human trafficking charges

Social media personality Andrew Tate has been detained in Romania.

The 36-year-old former kickboxer was held on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group days after being bested in verbal spat by environmentalist Greta Thunberg.

Tate and his brother Tristan have been under investigation since April.

A lawyer for the brothers confirmed their detention to Reuters.

Let’s take a closer look at Tate, a controversial online figure also known as the ‘king of toxic masculinity’:

Who is Tate?

As per his website, Tate was born on 14 December, 1986 to an American father and British mother.

Tate made his name in kickboxing circles – winning four championships in two weight classes in the International Sport Karate Association and finishing with a 76-9 record.

He first gained wider notoriety in 2016 on the UK TV show Big Brother.

Tate was removed from the show after video emerged of him hitting a woman with a belt.

Tate claimed the video was edited to make him look bad.

Rise as male influencer, social media ban

Tate then became a male influencer –  a rise that coincided with Donald Trump’s first term in office, who he has spoken admiringly of – where he offered young men ‘life lessons’ on how to get rich and attract women.

Tate, posting videos of himself with cigars, sports cars and beautiful women, racked up billions of views on social media sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Tate also spoke disparagingly of the #MeToo movement, saying it has been bad for women and has railed against COVID-19 vaccines and lockdowns.

As per The Guardian, he also founded ‘Hustler’s University’ – a money-making scheme that promised to make young men money through crypto investing and drop shipping, and getting others to sign up for membership.

The site eventually shut down and Tate was banned from the big social media companies after repeatedly making misogynistic comments about women including saying they needed to ‘bear responsibility for sexual assault’.

TikTok in a statement said: “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.”

Tate at the time told The Guardian: “It is very unfortunate that old videos of me, where I was playing a comedic character, have been taken out of context and amplified to the point where people believe absolutely false narratives about me,” he said. “I am genuinely innocent. I truly believe God will prevail.”

Bilking single men, police raid

The Daily Mirror ran a profile of Tate and his brother Tristan earlier this year about how the brothers were bilking single men out of money by using webcam girls who feed them sob stories and convince them that they are in love.

Tate, speaking about a model using the name Chloe, told the newspaper, “Four dollars a minute to keep her company was a good deal, however she made her real money because men fell in love with her and believed her fake story and tipped thousands to keep her attention and stop other men seeing her.

“Even when the face of the personality was sleeping, our girls behind the scenes would use ‘Chloe’s’ phone and constantly work on the relationships with her ‘boyfriends’.

“It’s a total scam. The model just has their hands on a keyboard that isn’t even plugged in. I have real professionals who are fluent in English behind the scenes getting men hooked, finding out their interests, the name of their dog. A guy will come online, they’ll say, ‘How’s Sparky?’ It’s an operation of professionals who lure these men in.”

The brothers, who set up shop in Romania, said they left the UK after “it went downhill” and that 40 per cent of the reason they did so was to avoid police scrutiny and more relaxed sexual assault laws.

Ironically,  the plan to avoid the eyes of the police didn’t work.

Tate and his brother Tristan were raided in April by local police as part of an investigation into human trafficking.

The Daily Beast quoted a local newspaper as saying that reports of a US citizen being held captive sparked the raid.

The newspaper reported that an American woman and a Romanian woman were found during the police action.

A US state department spokesperson told the outlet, “We are aware of reports of a US citizen held against their will in Romania,” the spokesperson said. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”

But Tristan remained defiant, telling the outlet, “No girls were found in my house, and nobody was arrested.”

Tate was one of several right-wing personalities including Donald Trump and .Jordan Peterson allowed back on Twitter after Musk’s takeover earlier this year.

Spat with Thunberg, detention

Earlier this week, Tate attempted to troll environmentalist Greta Thunberg about his fleet of cars – only to be met with a withering reply that caused much guffaws on social media.

The next day, Tate attempted to rebut Thunberg in a video posted on social media.

Tate, wearing a silk robe and holding a cigar, lobbed insults at Thunberg about her gender.

“I’m not actually mad at Greta,” he said, asking an assistant to bring in pizza boxes which were “not recycled.”

“She doesn’t realize she’s been programmed. She doesn’t realize she’s a slave to the matrix… someone has sat her down and convinced her to try and convince you to beg your government to tax you into poverty to stop the sun from being hot,” Tate added.

The pizza boxes, which had the logo of the popular Romanian chain ‘Jerry’s Pizza’, reportedly gave away Tate’s location to authorities – who then raided him.

Tate, his brother Tristan, and two Romanian suspects will be held for 24 hours prosecutors from the anti-organised crime unit said in a statement after raiding their properties in Bucharest.

With inputs from agencies