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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
Ramazani Mwamba

Who is Andrew Tate? The toxic influencer and ex-Big Brother star detained by police

Andrew Tate has been arrested as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation in Romania. The controversial influencer was detained alongside his brother by Romanian police.

His Bucharest home was raided and the lawyer for the brothers confirmed their detention. According to the news agency, Reuters, prosecutors said “The four suspects … appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialised websites for a cost."

READ MORE: Greta Thunberg responds to Andrew Tate arrest with sassy comment after Twitter spat

Footage has been released of Andrew and his brother being escorted out of their luxury villa by police. Andrew and his brother have been under investigation since April alongside two Romanian nationals.

But who is Andrew Tate and how did he become famous?

Who is Andrew Tate?

A controversial figure, Tate, 36, is a British citizen who was born in the USA. He was originally a professional kickboxer who had won titles but he rose to fame when he appeared on Big Brother back in 2016 - which he was removed from after a video of him attacking a woman surfaced.

Since then Tate has built a following online with misogynist content. Tate is known as one of the prominent faces of the 'manosphere'. The manopshere is a collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism which is known to radicalise young men.

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Tate was banned from Twitter and other social media sites like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok after a series of his provocative videos went viral prompting complaints from women's right's groups.

In 2017, he was banned on Twitter for saying that women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted but Tate was allowed back on Twitter after Elon Musk's acquisition of the popular app.

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