Andrew Tate 'arrested' in Romania

29 December 2022, 22:03 | Updated: 29 December 2022, 23:44

The self-styled misogynist internet celebrity Andrew Tate has been arrested in Romania on human trafficking charges.

British-American Tate, 36, has amassed a huge following of young men via Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

He and brother Tristan were arrested in Bucharest and will be detained for 24 hours, according to Romanian newspaper Gândul.

It reported that the US Embassy received a complaint that a woman with American citizenship was being held at their home without consent.

A spokesperson for Tate said: "Andrew and Tristan Tate have the utmost respect for the Romanian authorities and will always assist and help in any way they can."

Read more: 'Misogynist' influencer Andrew Tate banned from Facebook and Instagram

A former policewoman also accused of involvement in the alleged trafficking has been arrested on the same charges.

Former Big Brother contestant Tate has almost 3.5 million Twitter followers.

He recently got into a social media spat with climate activist Greta Thunberg.

After bragging about the carbon emissions of his supercars, Thunberg replied that Tate had "small d*** energy".

Her roast got almost three million likes.

Tate has gained further notoriety online for a number of comments about women, including suggesting that they "bear some responsibility" for being assaulted - an incident for which he was banned from Twitter.

A number of campaign groups have criticised Mr Tate for his views and warned he was a danger to young men and boys who see his content online, urging the various platforms on which he is active to remove him.

Domestic abuse charities have called his content “extreme misogyny”.

In one YouTube video, Tate described himself as “absolutely a misogynist”.

He said: “I’m a realist and when you’re a realist you’re sexist. There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist.”

In another clip he said: “I will state right now that I am absolutely sexist, I am absolutely a misogynist and I have f*** you money so I’ll say what I want. […] There is no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist.”

Videos of and about Mr Tate have also become popular on both YouTube and TikTok - videos using a hashtag of his name have been viewed more than 13 billion times on TikTok alone.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesman said: "Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok. We've been removing violative videos and accounts for weeks, and we welcome the news that other platforms are also taking action against this individual."