How did climate activism take down the alleged human trafficker - SDG 5,10,13

The phenomenon of Andrew Tate

2022 was marked by many events which directly and negatively affected the women’s position in society. From overturning Roe v. Wade in the USA, over Taliban rule in Afghanistan forbidding girls and women getting a proper education, Mahsa Amini getting killed by the so-called “morality police” which sparked huge protests all over this country, to general misogyny and sexism being on the rise all over the world.

One of the most popular examples of the last occurrence was definitely the fame and popularity of Andrew Tate, a former boxer who became known for his controversial and extremely misogynist points of view.

Tate gained more than 13 billion views and more than 5 million followers across social media for statements in which he says that women who are sexually assaulted need to shoulder “some responsibility,” claiming that women are “given to the man and belong to the man” or noting in online videos that he dates women who are 18 and 19 because he can “make an imprint” on them.

The most alarming thing about this self-proclaimed “toxic masculinity professional” is that he targets young men and boys who look up to him and soak in his problematic thoughts and take as their own. Andrew was removed from all social media platforms in August, but has recently returned to Twitter due to the Musk’s ownership over this app.

What happened in December?

Andrew Tate has returned to Twitter and within a day regained his 1 million of devoted followers. The general support of young men and boys has most likely affected Tate to feel invincible and untouchable, but that was nothing new. The plot took place when he confidently took it on himself to tease the famous, young climate activist – Greta Thunberg.

On 27 December, online entrepreneur Andrew Tate, 36, sent a boastfully hostile tweet to Greta, 19, about his sports car collection.

The tweet gained a lot of attention and it wasn’t too long before Greta decided to response. She replied with a short tweet giving him her “email address” and giving a new media topic for the next couple of weeks.

The sassy reply literally went viral with over 3,9 million shares on Twitter.

It took Andrew Tate about 10 hours to come up with an appropriate response to Thunberg’s tweet, which many described as a “perfect burn”.

A 36-year-old influencer posted a pompous video in which he tried to reassert his masculinity and status by blathering on, with a cigar and a pizza box as props.

The events took a dizzying turn once the news was published that Andrew and his brother Tristan were arrested in Romania under the allegations of human trafficking, along with a couple of other men, some of which also accused of rape.

The online speculation started a theory that Romanian authorities were able to locate Tate after he posted a video in response to Thunberg containing a pizza box from a local spot that gave away his location.

Although the local authorities denied this, Greta was quick to tweet about it saying:

Although this gave so many people some good laugh during the final days of 2022, this chain of events also serves as a great and serious reminder of how intersected some causes are.

As The Guardian reported: “Beyond the entertainment value of what transpired over the past few days is a serious reminder of the intersection between machismo, misogyny, hostility to climate action and climate science, and the dank underworld of rightwing characters like Tate recruiting white boys and young men to their views.”