BAD INFLUENCER

Banned from social media, under house arrest in Romania... but still Andrew Tate's toxic views are spread by his young male fans

- LYDIA VELJANOVSKI

Notorious influencer Andrew Tate is under house arrest in his Romanian mansion and has been banned from many social media platforms but it has not stopped his toxicity spreading online.

Unable to post his vile misogynistic videos on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube since August 2022, Tate still reigns supreme on many young men's social media feeds because fans as young as 12 continue to spread content glorifying him and his nasty views.

"He does not rely on his own accounts and this is one of the reasons why de-platforming him wasn't particularly effective," says Dr Tim Squirrell, of London-based think-tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue. "Instead, he uses a kind of army of boys and young men to post clips of his content."

Videos and images show the man known as Top G - the G is for gangster - spewing violent hate towards women and praising "Alpha males", usually in shades and with a lit cigar dangling from his mouth. They were even shared during his recent jail stint, where Tate was held for three months on suspicion of rape and human trafficking.

One TikTok account @MoneyIsMental, which has more than 574,200 likes, posts clips promoting Tate. On March 16, when he was behind bars, it posted a clip featuring women lying in bed in underwear and then Tate hitting a punch bag, with a link to Tate's get rich quick website The Real World in his bio.

A video shared on April 1 by TikTok account @purplehustler - claiming to be a teenager called Liam Garcia - says he had made $100,000 (£79,000) by following Tate's gospel, and shows money laid out on a bed.

Another, shared by @success8809 January 19, shows Tate telling a woman she has to be both "beautiful and compliant" in order to keep her husband.