Andrew Tate, the controversial social media influencer and former kickboxer who has been accused of rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, has been released from house arrest in Romania. Tate, who is well-known for posting misogynistic content promoting male dominance, still can't leave the country as he awaits his trial.
Tate, 36, and his brother, Tristan, along with two Romanian women, were detained in Bucharest in December 2022. On March 31, they won an appeal to be moved to house arrest.
“We’ve been completely innocent since the beginning of this," Tate said to the media from outside of his home, reports the Associated Press. "In January when I was thrown in a jail cell, the media reported and told the world I was a terrible person, they said that I hurt people and that I make a lot of money from criminal enterprises. And here we stand seven or eights month later and I’ve not seen a single victim on the news."
The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism in Romania alleged that there are seven victims that Tate, his brother, and the two Romanian women transported to the country to sexually exploit. In March 2022, Tate allegedly raped a woman.
Tate has been banned from social media platforms due to his misogynistic rhetoric and hate speech. His Twitter/X account was reinstated by Elon Musk, and now, after being released from house arrest, Tate has used the platform to insist that he is innocent, retweet men who have defended him, talk about "protecting" men from "false allegations," and share videos in which he walks around shirtless. He has 7.5 million followers.
"There are hundreds of high-profile cases of men suffering from false accusations. There are thousands of untold stories of normal men having their lives destroyed," he claimed in a tweet. "I am launching a charity to protect men from this predatory evil."
More from LittleThings: 7 Productive And Educational Ways To Keep Your Teen Busy This Summer
Tate also retweeted a post from his brother Tristan.
"Judges have release me from house arrest. It doesn’t matter how many fake screenshots haters share on X," Tristan wrote. "Imagine having spent 2 years running an account showing old videos saying I’m 'guilty'. Losers. Justice is justice. The law is the law. Evidence is evidence. I am free."
The brothers are not exactly "free." For 60 days, from August 4 through October 2, they are under judicial control. They cannot leave the Municipality of Bucharest or Ilfov county without approval from the court, according to CNN. They also cannot have contact with others involved in the trial, cannot have weapons, and must provide updates regularly.
Tate also took to Twitter to claim that the allegations against him are false, and to essentially state that he is innocent because he has been freed from house arrest, though the trial has not happened yet.
"I am innocent. My file isn't small, the prosecution specifically fills it with as many pages as possible to make it LOOK as big as possible. They have no evidence of any crimes, so they fill it with words instead. They fill it with however many words they can get away with. Their strategy is SIZE," he wrote.
Following his release from house arrest, Tate said that he spent his time "staying home in [his] house." A video he posted shows him walking across his house shirtless in front of a large dinner set up for multiple people. When Tate was released from jail, he also posted a video of himself walking around shirtless. In that video, he walked back and forth, smoking a cigar.
Tate was also in the news a few days ago when he commented on Amanda Holden's post. The English media personality posted a bikini picture on Twitter/X with the caption: "Good Morning."
Tate commented on the photo, saying, "You are a wife and a mother and you're far past a teenager. There is no need for this post."
Some pointed out that Tate regularly posts shirtless videos and photos of himself, while others defended Tate or echoed his opinion on the photo.
Advocacy groups and charities such as Hope not Hate have warned people about the dangers of Andrew Tate. "Tate’s misogynist, homophobic and racist content is seen online by millions of young people. His confidence, his money and his lifestyle are all carefully crafted to make his brand of hateful content inspiring and aspirational," the organization's campaigns and communication director Georgie Laming told CNN.
Parents and teachers have expressed concern about the influence Tate has on young people.
“It’s concerning — these kids pretty much live online," Jordan Randolph, a middle school English teacher in Texas, told Education Week. "The younger boys, they’re so impressionable. They’re definitely at an age where they’re trying to figure out, what does it mean to be a man? What kind of man will I become? It seems like the whole Andrew Tate thing captures them.”
Another teacher told the outlet that she has noticed an increase in the number of rape jokes made by boys in her seventh grade classes.
Tate has said that survivors of sexual assault must "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted. He has talked about being violent towards women and controlling them.
Hannah Ruschen, a policy officer at Britain's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, talked to The Guardian about how Tate's content can be particularly dangerous for children.
"Viewing such material at a young age can shape a child’s experiences and attitudes, resulting in further harm to women and girls in and out of school and online," Ruschen told the outlet.
