Here’s a timeline of how social media personality and former kickboxer Andrew Tate, known for his misogynistic hate speech, ended up detained in Romania until at least February and potentially faces years in prison for human trafficking.
April 2022The Romanian government opened an investigation into Tate and his brother Tristan and reportedly raided Tate’s home in Romania, where he allegedly held two women captive, after the U. S. Embassy was held hostage. The U. S. government informed him that a U. S. citizen was being held in opposition to his will.
August 25, 2022Tate denied holding women captive or wrongdoing in an interview with Tucker Carlson and said the raid was an act of “hitting hard,” a false report of a crime to authorities.
November 18, 2022Tate returned to Twitter, ending a five-year ban after Elon Musk let go of the platform’s reins on hate speech, a move that reinstated the accounts of Donald Trump, Kathy Griffin and Jordan Peterson.
December 27, 2022 Tate sparked a Twitter dispute with climate activist Greta Thunberg, mocking her with the “huge emissions” of her 33 cars and asking for an email address to which she would send a list of her car collection.
December 28, 2022 In a viral response, Thunberg responded, inviting him to “enlighten” him at a fake email address: “smalldickenergy@getalife. com,” and later that day, Tate posted a reaction video showing him smoking a sitting cigarette. next to two boxes of pizza, which he promised to recycle, attacking his climate activism.
December 29, 2022 Tate, his brother and two others were detained by the Romanian government for 24 hours for human trafficking with six known victims: one suspect was also charged with rape, although local law prevented the government from naming the suspect.
December 30, 2022 A Romanian opinion approved prosecutors’ request to increase detention to 30 days: Tate and the other suspects welcome the decision.
January 4, 2023 The Romanian government seized 11 cars belonging to Tate and his brother (equivalent to a third of the collection Tate boasted to Thunberg of having on Twitter), added a Rolls-Royce Wraith and an Aston Martin Vanquish S Ultimate, and they are investigating that they were bought with human trafficking money.
January 10, 2023Tate, his brother and two Romanian women who are also detained have lost their bid in a Bucharest court to appeal their 30-day detention, forcing Tate to remain in the country while the government continues to investigate.
January 20, 2023The detention of Tate and his brother in Romania has been extended for another 30 days until February 27, while prosecutors continue their investigation into human trafficking and organized crime: the ruling took into account the “particular dangerousness” of the defendants to further their detention.
February 1, 2023Tate, his brother and the two Romanians appealed their 30-day detention, arguing that prolonged detention is “not necessary,” but the court rejected their appeal and upheld their detention until February 27.
Andrew Tate first rose to fame as a world champion kickboxer and contestant on the British TV series Big Brother in 2016 (which he temporarily dumped after video surfaced of him beating a woman with a belt), but now it’s bigger. Known as a self-proclaimed misogynist who uses social media platforms to attract young men. He retained a symbol characterized by “traditional masculine values”, which points to his collection of fast cars and the great space of him; however, he was noted for the many offensive comments he made about women. Tate said rape victims deserve to take responsibility for their attacks, questioned why women can just drive, and bragged about how he would beat up a woman if she accused him of cheating. He moved to Romania in 2017 and said he wanted to live in a country where “corruption is available to everyone” and the police would be less likely to investigate allegations of sexual assault. Tate amassed millions of fans on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook before being banned from all 3 platforms in August 2022; his recently restored Twitter account has 4. 3 million followers. His presence on social media sparked protests against his removal among organizations of survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, who raised concerns about the effect of his misogyny on his young male audience.
“The 4 suspects (. . . ) appear to have created an organized criminal organization with the aim of recruiting, harboring and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content intended to be viewed on specialized programs in exchange for a fee,” Romanian prosecutors said in a statement. December 29.
3. 9 million. That’s how many likes Thunberg’s first tweet got in reaction to Tate in just one week, one of the most-liked tweets of all time.
A widely shared theory on the web has been debunked that the pizza boxes in Tate’s video, reported through Thunberg, that came from a Romanian pizzeria, allowed the government to verify that he was still in the country. Although he was arrested the day after the video. The Romanian government denied the link between the pizza boxes and his arrest and maintained that he was detained because he had been under investigation since April: A spokeswoman for Romania’s organized crime firm called the rumor “funny. “
Andrew Tate, brother accused in Romania of human trafficking (The Washington Post)
Who is Andrew Tate, “the king of poisonous masculinity,” accused of trafficking?(The Washington Post)
Andrew Tate: The self-proclaimed misogynistic influencer (BBC)