Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Andrew Tate? -- Inside the violent, misogynistic world of TikTok’s new star, Andrew Tate

"yeah, it's the same reason you clowns take Russell Brand, Joe Rogan, Aaron Rodgers,
Andrew Tate and all these other dirtbags as gospel.. "

Observer investigation reveals how the ex-kickboxer and Big Brother contestant from Luton has gone from obscurity to global internet fame in months

How TikTok bombards young men with misogynistic videos

Shanti Das Sun 7 Aug 2022 02.48 AEST

[...]

Styled as a self-help guru, offering his mostly male fans a recipe for making money, pulling girls and “escaping the matrix”, Tate has gone in a matter of months from near obscurity to one of the most talked about people in the world. In July, there were more Google searches for his name than for Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian.

His rapid surge to fame was not by chance. Evidence obtained by the Observer shows that followers of Tate are being told to flood social media with videos of him, choosing the most controversial clips in order to achieve maximum views and engagement.

The coordinated effort, involving thousands of members of Tate’s private online academy Hustler’s University and a network of copycat accounts on TikTok, has been described by experts as a “blatant attempt to manipulate the algorithm” and artificially boost his content. In less than three months, the strategy has earned him a huge following online and potentially made him millions of pounds, with 127,000 members now paying the £39 a month to join Hustler’s University community, many of them men and boys from the UK and US.

Amid the drama offline, online Tate’s content took off. Since January, repackaged videos from interviews with Tate over the years have been attracting millions of views on TikTok. But in recent weeks, this growth has accelerated. In August so far alone, clips tagged with his name have been watched more than a billion times.

I inflict, I expect, absolute loyalty from my woman.
I ain’t having my chicks talking to other dudes
Andrew Tate

The posts do not come from Tate himself, who does not appear to be active on the platform, but from hundreds of accounts, often using his name and photo, run by his followers – members of Hustler’s University. Members, including boys as young as 13, are told they can earn up to £10,000 a month through lessons on crypto investing, drop shipping and by recruiting others to Hustler’s University, earning 48% commission for each person they refer.

To have the best chance of getting people to sign up, they are advised to stoke controversy to improve their chances of going viral.

In one guide, Hustler’s University “students” are told that attracting “comments and controversy” is the key to success: “What you ideally want is a mix of 60-70% fans and 40-30% haters. You want arguments, you want war.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/06/andrew-tate-violent-misogynistic-world-of-tiktok-new-star

Anything for a buck. Feels another Brand to me.