Avoid Women Who Go To Festivals: Andrew Tate Is Back On Twitter, Time To Boycott Him?

Andrew Tate, King of Misogyny, is back on Twitter. Tate was banned from the social media platform for posting a series of tweets that trivialised rape in 2017 and caused public outrage. He was arrested in December 2022 and is currently under house arrest while authorities look into allegations of sexual assault, exploitations, organised crime, and human trafficking.

Despite all the allegations and his tarnished image, Tate has his own set of followers. Now that he is back on Twitter, he has posted a series of tweets that have stirred fresh controversy.

Tate’s thread urged men to avoid women who go to festivals. "They’re either on some losers table who’s feeding them cocaine or in a crowd of sweary peasants because they are sweaty peasants."

He claimed that they would be posting endless Instagram stories screaming and having fun to prove to the world that they are worthless.

Andrew Tate Sexist Tweet

In another tweet, Tate posted a sexist comment that read, "If you're not going to listen to your man, what are you with him for? To argue?"

He added a laughing emoji because apparently it was funny for him. Given that he is no stranger to passing such sexist and misogynistic remarks, it’s not surprising that he’s back with his hateful speech. But the question here is, "Why is he back on Twitter?"

Tate’s account was one of the many that were reinstated by Elon Musk. It’s alarming and misleading that a man who is a repeat offender who is accused of several illegal activities and someone who was earlier banned on the social media platform has been permitted on it again. Freedom of speech is a constitutional right, but hate speech isn't. How can it be encouraged by a social media platform like Twitter with over 450 million users? If abuse, hate speech, misogyny, sexism, etc., are not enough to ban someone from Twitter, then what is?

Why isn’t his presence on a widely used site recognised as problematic? The man has 6.4 followers on Twitter despite being accused of so many criminal activities.

The 36-year-old British-American kickboxer turned social media personality is being followed by millions of youngsters who are internalising his detrimental content. Won’t youngsters be misled by his absurd content? How can he be allowed to return to social media despite many people calling out his misogynistic remarks?

Does Andrew Tate's being welcomed back on Twitter mean that tomorrow any convict or accused will be allowed to spread hate and misogyny on the platform? One might counter by saying that if Tate's content is problematic, why does he have so many followers? It doesn’t take a scientist to figure out that people are drawn to controversial content.

However, if social media platforms are going to be irresponsible, lack social consciousness, and let offenders use the sites to spread their toxicity, it’s high time we identify hazardous content and stay away from it for our own good. If people are boycotting him by simply unfollowing him, who is he going to make content for? If no one’s watching, then obviously he’s not going to derive money or fame from it, so what would motivate him to keep going?

Of course, he would probably have his own set of followers, but I bet the majority of us would outnumber them. Even if a lot of us don’t resonate with his content, we might check it out because it’s entertaining. But we need to contemplate if entertainment comes at the cost of spreading negativity and toxicity. If it is, how can it really be entertainment?

Views expressed are the author's own.

Suggested Reading: Andrew Tate Is King of Toxic Masculinity, His Content Can Harm Young Minds