Social media personality Andrew Tate was banned from Facebook and Instagram this week for violating parent company Meta's guidelines on "dangerous individuals and organizations."
His YouTube account was also deleted for "multiple violations" of the platform's Community Guidelines, including its "hate speech" policy.
Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokesperson, said: "We terminated channels associated with Andrew Tate for multiple violations of our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service, including our hate speech policy. If a channel is terminated, the uploader is unable to use, own or create any other YouTube channels."
Tate's videos continue to go viral on other social media platforms, especially TikTok where videos tagged with #AndrewTate have been viewed 12.7 billion times.
Newsweek has learned that an account run by Tate was removed from TikTok, though other users continue to post his content.
Ex-kickboxer Tate, 35, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 14, 1986 then raised in Luton, a town in the U.K. just north of London.
Holding both American and British nationality, he competed in the U.K.'s professional boxing and martial arts scene.
In 2016 Tate shot to national prominence when he was kicked out of the U.K. version of reality TV show Big Brother, after a video emerged of him appearing to hit a woman with a belt.
Tate insisted he and the women were "great friends" and the whipping was consensual.
He went on to become a social media phenomenon, offering life and dating advice to an audience of predominantly young men on YouTube and Facebook.
Before his accounts were deleted, Tate had 4.7 million followers on Instagram and 760,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Tate has been accused of making misogynistic comments, including some that could incite violence against women, sparking fury online.
In 2017 he caused outrage by saying women "must bear some responsibility" if they're raped, at the height of the #MeToo scandal.
He argued it is acceptable for men to have multiple partners, but not woman, saying: "Read the Bible, every single man had multiple wives, not a single woman had multiple husbands. It's against the will of God — it's disgusting."
In a statement to NBC News, Tate said he is a "successful coach" who has also made "many videos praising women," and who plays an "online character."
He added: "It has nothing to do for hate for women. It's simply about good and bad people. My mother is my hero."
Newsweek has asked Tate for comment as well as Meta and YouTube owner Google.
In one video Tate described how he'd react if a woman accused him of cheating, stating: "It's bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up b****," Britain's Guardian newspaper reported.
In 2017 Tate moved to Romania to setup a cam girl business. In a since-deleted YouTube video, he said it's easier to get off a rape charge in Eastern Europe, claiming this was "40 per cent of the reason I moved to Romania."
He added: "I'm not a f**king rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.
"If you're a man living in England or Germany or America or any of the western world right now you've decided to live in a country where any woman...at any point in the future can destroy your life," he was quoted as saying by U.K. news site Indy100.
Earlier this year Tate's home in Romania was raided by police as part of an investigation into people trafficking, according to NBC and other media, though he denies any wrongdoing.
Speaking to the BBC, Joe Mulhall, from counter-extremism group Hope Not Hate, said Tate "poses a genuine threat to young men, radicalising them towards extremism misogyny, racism and homophobia".
He backed deleting Tate's social media accounts, commenting: "We've provided significant evidence to the major social media platforms, including Meta, about his activity and why he must be removed.
"We welcome Meta's swift action to remove Andrew Tate and we'll be putting pressure on TikTok to follow this example. They must act now to prevent further spread of these extremist views."
A spokesperson for TikTok said: "Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok. We've been removing violative videos and accounts for weeks, and we welcome the news that other platforms are also taking action against this individual."
Update 8/23/22 02:20 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with comment from a YouTube spokesperson.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is covering U.S. politics and world ... Read more
