Andrew Tate has moved on to Rumble after being kicked out of social media like Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok. – It’s the way he says things. I think that is why he has become so popular. That’s what 21-year-old Alexander Trefall says. When Andrew Tate appeared on his #fyp on Tiktok a while back, Trefall was inspired. – I got really motivated and wanted to try to follow what he says about working hard. The controversial Andrew Tate has taken the internet and the media by storm in recent months, among other things by fronting hypermasculine values and oppressive views of women. Alexander Trefall has been inspired by Andrew Tate to work hard. Photo: Ine Julia Rojahn Schwebs / news Tate has many followers, especially among young men, who, among other things, are told that women should be owned by men, and that they themselves are to blame for being raped. Trefall says that the whole group of friends have been watching Andrew Tate lately. – But do you take him seriously? – I think it’s a 50/50 case. Some want to achieve the goal of becoming rich, having their dream job and being as successful as him. But most people probably also think he is quite controversial. Andrew Tate says in several video clips that he exercises a lot. Here he shows off his body in something reminiscent of an elevator covered in mirrored walls. Photo: Screenshot / Instagram – There’s a lot you shouldn’t listen to, for example what he says about girls. It is not right under any circumstances, says Trefall. Posts on new platform Last week, Tate was kicked out of a number of social media for breaking the guidelines for hate speech. His profiles can no longer be found on Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube or Facebook. But at the same time, he has drawn attention to another platform – Rumble. Andrew Tate photographed standing in front of a red, and probably expensive, car out in what looks like a desert landscape. Photo: Screenshot / Instagram Rumble, a kind of unregulated version of Youtube, has now climbed up the charts in both the App Store and Android’s app stores. And precisely because Rumble is almost unregulated, you can quickly stumble into some of the internet’s darkest alleys. – When YouTube threw the Russian TV channel RT off its platform for promoting propaganda, they could continue broadcasting on Rumble, says Ståle Lindblad. He is an entrepreneur and expert on social media. The alternative video platform promises, among other things, to be “immune to cancellation culture”. Rumble has previously welcomed “cancelled” Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists with open arms. Banning and flourishing Lindblad says that it is common to see an upswing in the use of alternative media when people with many followers are banned from the established platforms. Andrew Tate in what will be his own plane. No climate hero, that is. Photo: Screenshot / Instagram This was seen not least with Donald Trump’s launch of his own platform, Truth Social, after he was banned from several social media. – But then they slip back again. And most people who use Rumble now will certainly return to YouTube when interest in the news has died down, says Lindblad. But if there is always a new platform to post on, then what is the point of banning? – That limits their range. He doesn’t reach as many people on Rumble and the other alternative platforms as he did on Youtube and Tiktok, says Lindblad. Andrew Tate shows off notes that look like money. Photo: Screenshot / Instagram On Youtube, Tate had several million views on his videos before he was kicked out. On Rumble, the most popular “only” has been seen just over 400,000 times. – All these controversial people want to return to the established platforms. That is why they complain so much, says Lindblad. Violence and human trafficking Alexander Trefall believes that Andrew Tate has a conscious relationship with the content he shares. – He knows what he is doing when it comes to being controversial. Because the more stupid things he says, the bigger he gets. So he’s doing something right, I must say. But even if Tate is not always taken seriously, there are good reasons why he is referred to as “the most dangerous man on the internet”. Andrew Tate reportedly enjoys posing in front of luxury cars. Photo: Screenshot / Instagram In 2016, when he was a participant in the British version of the reality show Big Brother, a video appeared on the internet in which he beats a woman with a belt. He was banned from the show after the video gained attention. In April this year, he was also searched by Romanian police on suspicion of rape and that he held an American girl against her will. Tate has denied the allegations, but is still under investigation. Being seen as a martyr for freedom of expression – The platforms become better places to be when aggressive voices disappear, says news’s culture commentator Inger Merete Hobbelstad. At the same time, she believes that such an exclusion comes with some crosshairs. – One is simply about freedom of expression. On the other hand, it is quite arbitrary who is banned. Even if you remove one, you will never be able to remove everyone who thinks something similar. Andrew Tate flirts with violence in several video clips posted by him online. Here he poses with what looks like a weapon. Photo: Screenshot / Instagram Then the ban may work against its purpose. Tiktok, which is among the platforms Tate has been banned from, is still chock full of videos praising him. – One challenge is that it can give those who are thrown out a certain glamour, a status of their own simply, they become martyrs for freedom of expression, continues Hobbelstad.
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