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Andrew Tate appears to have been unbanned on Twitter. Yesterday, the controversial influencer's account made its first tweet in five years. News of his Twitter unban came shortly after the social media company's new owner and CEO, Elon Musk, sent made a post discussing the platform's new "freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach" policy.
Under the initial tweet, Musk announced the reinstatement of a handful of notable Twitter accounts, including comedian Kathy Griffin, media personality Jordan Peterson, and conservative satirical website The Babylon Bee. The Tesla CEO also stated that a decision on unbanning former United States president Donald Trump is yet to be made.
Although Tate was never mentioned by name by Musk, it appears he was included among the list of high-profile reinstatements. It is unknown why he wasn't named alongside the other individuals. Regardless, after being banned for over five years, Andrew Tate is back on Twitter.
Timeline of Andrew Tate's Twitter ban
Following a successful career in kickboxing, the American-British internet personality made an appearance as a contestant on the reality show Big Brother in 2016. As a wider audience became familiar with Tate, he came under scrutiny for racist and other controversial posts made on his Twitter account. This resulted in many viewers calling for him to be pulled from the show.
Tate was removed from the seventeenth season of Big Brother after a mere six days on the show, but not for his controversial tweets. A video of him beating a woman with a belt surfaced on social media, quickly leading to his being pulled from the show. It is worth noting that both Tate and the lady in the video have claimed that the act was consensual.
It wasn't until 2017 that Twitter finally banned Andrew Tate, following his highly controversial opinions regarding the #MeToo movement and what qualifies as sexual harassment or assault.
While the public's attention was fixated on Harvey Weinstein and the litany of sexual assault accusations he was facing, Tate made a series of contentious tweets, one of which was:
"If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must bare some responsibility. I’m not saying it’s OK you got raped."
Andrew Tate created another account on the social media site, which stayed active long enough to be verified by the platform in 2021. However, it was this same verification that brought Tate's attempt at ban evasion to Twitter's attention. He was once again permanently banned from the platform, and a statement from Twitter claimed that the second account had been verified in error.
Despite his ban from Twitter, Andrew Tate's content from YouTube and other social media platforms like Tiktok, Facebook, and Instagram was still in circulation on the site. His presence on social media peaked in July 2022, when he surpassed Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian, and even COVID-19 in terms of Google searches.
This mass exposure resulted in his views being heavily scrutinized. After numerous calls for his de-platforming, Tate was banned from practically every major social media outlet, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
On November 18, Tate was reinstated on Twitter, the first site to ban him. This happened after Elon Musk stated that negative tweets would be "deboosted and demonetized" rather than resulting in suspensions. Andrew Tate's return was prompted by this decision.
The controversial figure's reinstatement is the talk of the town and also marks another divisive decision made by Twitter.
