This week, Andrew Tate, a former professional kickboxer and controversial internet personality, made headlines after he got into a Twitter spat with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. After Tate tweeted about his numerous cars “and their respective enormous emissions,” Thunberg responded with a joke about Tate’s genitals.
On Friday, Tate and his brother were ordered to be detained for a month as prosecutors pursued claims of human trafficking and rape. According to a statement from DIICOT, the Romanian anti-organized crime agency, at least six victims were allegedly “sexually exploited by the organized criminal group.” The suspects are accused of misleading the victims “into believing that they intended to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship” while transporting victims to Romania and later sexually exploiting them with physical violence and coercion.
Following the arrest, social media was flooded with memes and misinformation from people both condemning and defending Tate. Conspiracy theories quickly went viral, speculating that the pizza boxes in a video Tate posted had been an important factor in locating him. Right-leaning influencers with millions of followers reacted to the news, comparing it to a perceived lack of action in other cases, including that of Jeffrey Epstein.
Tate has not yet been convicted and some, including those who had defended or platformed Tate in recent months, have noted that. Despite this, the rapper Afualo tweeted in September 2022 that he knows Tate but that Tate isn’t his “hero” and he has frequently promoted Tate’s content.
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