Earlier this year, Spotify removed Andrew Tate’s “Pimping Hoes” podcast after a petition reached more than 90,000 signatures. And while a single complaint should have been enough to cancel such vile and harmful content, misogynistic influencers continue to expand their influence on the minds of boys and young men.
Kevin Liverpool
As a father of a pre-teen boy, I worry that our limited understanding about how men like Tate operate puts us at risk of losing the battle for our sons’ integrity, mental health and capacity to build healthy, loving relationships.
How do these charlatans win the hearts and minds of boys? By mixing self-improvement messages with misogyny in the manosphere — unhealthy, misogynistic online spaces that are easily accessible on mainstream platforms like YouTube and Spotify, where boys searching for advice on success or relationships are instead fed a stream of content saturated with sexist ideologies.
According to Equimundo, an international nonprofit promoting healthy masculinity, these influencers use the guise of confidence-building to radicalize young men.
“Sexist influencers target boys in crisis and exploit their anxieties.”
Not only have manosphere influencers optimized the right platforms to reach their target demographic, they also have effectively crafted compelling messages. And it works. In a 2022 survey of 1,374 young men, just over a third (35%) reported “relating” to Tate and a quarter reported “looking up to him as a role model,” citing admiration for his inspirational work ethic, relatable opinions about the world, his bravery and confidence, and relentless defense of traditional male values.
Sexist influencers target boys in crisis and exploit their anxieties. So when adolescent boys and young men search for information on dating and relationships, body image and exercise, work and success, AI algorithms used by these influencers flood their audience’s timelines with misogynistic and harmful content. The increased exposure raises young men’s risk of being caught in a web of toxic masculinity.
Petitions to deplatform people like Tate and other misogynistic influencers have been seen as a threat to free speech. But when we consider the impact such speech can have, wouldn’t it be reasonable to say we have a responsibility to safeguard young, impressionable minds?
For example, when Tate was asked what men should do if their girlfriend cheated, he responded, “Bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck.” Is this the free speech boys need?
In March, Kyle Clifford pled guilty to the 2024 triple murder of his girlfriend, her mother and sister. The prosecution presented evidence that just 24 hours before the killings, Clifford searched for Tate’s podcast and watched his videos, underlining that online misogynistic content may be linked to real-life violence against women.
Influencers like Tate peddle a poisonous elixir. They encourage boys to see life as war, discipline as dominance, mental health as weakness, intimate relationships as a playground to objectify and dehumanize women.
Helping our boys requires more than removing harmful content from the internet. It demands that we build communities where boys learn that strength is not domination, love is not weakness, and women are not the enemy. Because if we don’t teach them, men like Andrew Tate will.
Kevin Liverpool is a Public Voices Fellow on prevention of child sexual abuse with The OpEd Project and works as a partnerships specialist with No Means No Worldwide, an international nonprofit on a mission to end sexual violence against women and children globally.
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