Cécile Simmons on Andrew Tate’s arrest and the future of the ‘manosphere’

The controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate was first arrested along with his brother in December 2022 in Romania on charges of rape and human trafficking. In March, Tate was handed an additional arrest warrant issued by UK authorities over allegations of ‘sexual aggression’ dating back to 2012-2015.

ISD’s Cécile Simmons spoke to Euronews about what Andrew Tate’s arrest could mean for the future of the ‘manosphere’.

“In recent years, influencers have really contributed to the mainstreaming of misogynistic ideas, and Andrew Tate is one of the biggest influencers,” Cécile explained.

“What characterises him is how quickly he amassed the followers he got, and he did so by combining misogyny and self-help talk, building this whole commercial enterprise,” she added.  

In 2022, before Tate’s arrest in Romania, the influencer was deplatformed from most social media sites including YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.  

Cécile then noted that Tate is not the only manosphere influencer out there: “Everyone is so focused on Andrew Tate because he was so big for a while, but while we look at him we forget that there are loads of other people out there with big platforms who are peddling quite problematic ideas.” 

“I think there’s a lot of resentment among young men, and I think that there are other influencers who now are trying to tap into that same discontent that Tate used,” Cécile explained. “Other people are ready to weaponise those feelings. And we need to find solutions to address this.”