Andrew Tate, a viral social media star, was taken into Romanian custody along with his brother on December 29th. The charges the two, but more specifically Andrew face, are rape, human trafficking, and running an organized crime ring. Andrew Tate, prior to this crime, faced backlash for his misogynistic persona. Tate’s negative ideas continue to have almost no effect on his large following of men, a lot being teenagers and young adults. Andrew Tate’s influence greatly affects how women have been and are regarded due to his ideas pushing women back into harmful stereotypes. His following base is mainly men due to the fact that he openly bashes women and aims to control them in all aspects of life. Yet, actions speak louder than words, which brings us to the current allegations that have landed him in a Romanian prison. 

Tate’s arrest is actually owed to a 19-year-old climate change activist. Greta Thunberg is known as one of the climate movement’s youngest and most influential people. The two social media influencers have often fought digitally about various topics, but the most recent incident that revealed Tate’s location to Romanian authorities happened to be about Tate’s 33 cars and their carbon emissions. Tate had initially been under suspicion by the Romanian government since last April, but the newest peg in their investigation was due to the number of cars he had, which are now confiscated for the investigation. The two shared a few tweets where they challenged each other over carbon emissions and his bigotry. The final turning point that led to his arrest was Greta getting him so riled up that he filmed a video to come back at her without realizing that there was a local pizza box in the frame. The police noticed the pizza box and were able to locate Tate and arrested him as soon as possible. Greta’s comeback was, “This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.” which was yet another win for the young adult. 

Tate was then taken into custody for twenty-four hours while the investigation occurred. The evidence for his crimes lies in his own words as well as the raid on his “business”. Tate’s business as he claims was 75 women being paid to talk to men for 4 dollars a minute, but in reality, the women were barely paid as Tate and his brother kept the majority of the profits to themselves.  Six women have come forward saying that they were sexually exploited by Tate, one of which claims they were violently sexually assaulted. This was not the first time the same issue was brought to public light, and in April, four women were released from the same property where the six women were currently rescued from. A witness and neighbor of the property stated that they had seen multiple naked women on the patio and believed the women were working in chat rooms. These women were not simply coming and going. They were being held hostage by Tate and the people he worked with. 

As of January 9th, the investigation is still ongoing, but the location of Tate has changed. Although authorities will not reveal why, Tate was moved to a hospital for the time being, but is still in custody for thirty days. Tate has entered a plea that has not been denied or accepted by law enforcement yet. The world will continue to watch one of the most misogynistic and hateful men undergo a criminal investigation for his viciously disgusting crimes.