Controversial figure Andrew Tate permanently banned from TikTok
Andrew Tate, one of the most divisive figures on the internet, has been permanently banned from TikTok, and the social media platform are also cracking down on clips of him posted from other accounts on the site.
Until recently, many people had never heard of Tate; but the former kickboxer shot to online fame with videos of him making sexist and misogynistic comments.
Clips of Tate show him saying he believes women are men's 'property' and compared being in a relationship with a woman to 'training a dog'.
However, Tate has said he was 'playing a comedic character' in clips of him which have become popular on TikTok, claiming he'd donated more than $1 million to charities supporting women.
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He said it was 'unfortunate that old videos of me' had been 'taken out of context' and used to promote 'absolutely false narratives' about him, arguing that the 'nothing could be further from the truth' when it came to his views on women.
TikTok confirmed that last week they permanently banned an account they believe belonged to Tate.
The majority of the clips of Tate on TikTok didn't come from his personal account, for most of the time he was famous on the platform he didn't even have an account on the site with copycats and fan pages posting the clips.
The social media site have said they are using technology to crack down on duplicated clips of Tate and will be reviewing new content in an attempt to stop more videos of him from being posted.
An investigation into content which breaches their rules is ongoing, with Tiktok continuing to review content.
In a statement TikTok said: "Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok.
"Our investigation into this content is ongoing, as we continue to remove violative accounts and videos, and pursue measures to strengthen our enforcement, including our detection models, against this type of content."
Following his Tiktok account being banned, Tate was also banned from Facebook and Instagram with the former kickboxer later writing on social media platform Gettr that people should 'resist the slave mind'.
In Australia, a number of schools have said Tate's videos are leading teenagers to 'toxic' sexism, with some schools reporting cases of 'extreme sexism' and even 'sexual harassment'.
Teachers pointed the finger of blame at 'male toxic influencer s**t', while Hunter Johnson of mental health charity The Man Cave said 'Tate-isms' were being used for 'banter' and 'disrespect' by young men.
He said: "Often it is young men who feel like they’ve been ripped off, that they were entitled to attention, were entitled to, you know, particularly female attention, and they didn’t get it."
Tate has said he 'receiving 10,000 death threats a day' on social media before getting banned by Meta from Facebook and Instagram.
Topics: Facebook, Instagram, Social Media, TikTok, Andrew Tate
Joe Harker