Andrew Tate content should be banned on YouTube & Twitch, but it’s not easy

Andrew Tate’s content has been banned on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok… Now, he just needs YouTube and Twitch for the royal flush. If they make that decision, they’ve got a big task on their hands.

The former kickboxer has been making headlines across the world over the last year, responding to multiple fight rumors from the likes of KSI to Jake Paul, but more seriously sparking controversy with several misogynistic comments about women.

However, a content creator with such an enormous platform choosing to share disrespectful and misogynistic takes on women has no place anywhere in the public domain. Don’t just take my word for it; Meta and TikTok have also come to that same conclusion.

In 2017, he posted on Twitter suggesting victims of rape and sexual harassment should bear some responsibility for the heinous acts that happened to them – landing himself a permanent ban from the platform.

In August 2022, his terrible bingo card of bans got closer and closer to being complete, with Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram coming to the same conclusion.

A statement from TikTok to The Independent, 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.”

Why Andrew Tate deserves a blanket ban

This decision came weeks after Tate appeared on a live debate with Twitch streamers xQc and Adin Ross, where he divided opinion by saying he enjoyed being territorial with women.

In that stream, xQc said: “A lot of his takes are legitimately actual misogynistic ways and thoughts and they’re very anti-woman takes and behaviors… If everybody replicates those thoughts and behaviors in the general public without money or status or whatever, it is complete disarray, right? It’s absolute chaos!”

While he looks to cash in on the virality of his public persona – boasting over 15 million views on TikTok alone – it shouldn’t be a multi-million boxing deal coming his way any time soon… Instead, to stop the spread of his content, such action should become a blanket ban, with YouTube and Twitch included.

Now, this isn’t an easy move for the Amazon-owned platform to make. He doesn’t have a Twitch channel, therefore has not broken any of their Terms of Service.

These terms do state that: “Hateful conduct is any content or activity that promotes, encourages, or facilitates discrimination, denigration, objectification, harassment, or violence based on the following characteristics, and is strictly prohibited.” Tate’s comments do fall into that category.

However, it does become an argument of, ‘Is it Twitch’s responsibility to police the internet?’ Without an official channel, the only opportunities Tate can take up are guest appearances on different channels that may host him, such as Adin Ross – where he appeared mere hours after his Meta ban.

On that show, he claimed to be a “positive force” on social media and obviously, many disagree with that assessment.

It is the most recent example where he can jump on a show and spread his messaging, with thousands of people listening live, and hundreds of thousands of waterfall impressions on YouTube Shorts or TikTok from fan accounts.

Now, the filtration and removal of the content found to be violating several social media and content creation platforms will be a big job in itself for Meta. On the other hand, cutting off the flow of tomorrow’s viral content is how it could be achieved.

Andrew Tate content is being removed on YouTube

The 35-year-old did have two YouTube channels, though both are not discoverable as of August 22, which suggests they were taken down.

That stops the issue at the source, but there are other ways for people to share Tate content. In the month of August alone, on YouTube Shorts (essentially a TikTok-style video sharing platform run by an algorithm), a number of his videos have exceeded 10 million views. Not all of them are hateful content, but it does allow you to visualize how far-reaching Andrew Tate’s videos can be – even if they are not from his channels.

In YouTube’s hate speech policy, they say they will remove content promoting violence or hatred against individuals based on “sex/gender” as well as “victims of a major violent event and their kin.” By those standards, it is possible the two channels he had were banned on those grounds.

Over to you, YouTube & Twitch

Now that TikTok has made the step to remove other Andrew Tate content spit out by fan channels, it does open the door for Twitch and YouTube to follow that precedent.

With a Twitch ban, other streamers would not be able to host Tate without running the risk of a ban for themselves, reducing the chances he shares hateful speech on their platform.

This type of firm action is needed in this case, although YouTube is not known to enforce similar such bans, making it difficult for those calling for tougher measures. Removing content from a particular channel has been seen before, though nothing on the scale of what TikTok has committed to.

A petition with over 40,000 signatures called for Andrew Tate to be banned on TikTok before the decision was made. The page said: “He claims to be turning ‘boys into men, but what he’s actually doing is turning them into potential abusers.” 

The language might be strong in this case, but it does go to show the level of fear people have around misogynistic language becoming viral content – and the influence that has on wider society. Especially younger people.

It is now the time for Twitch and YouTube to stand up to that threat in a similar way to TikTok, even if it’s not standard procedure.