Thousands demand TikTok ban ‘rape culture’ influencer
Testing on staging11
(NewsNation) — Thousands of people want to see TikTok influencer Andrew Tate banned from the platform.
Tate’s TikTok posts have been viewed more than 11 billion times. However, the influencer, and founder of Hustlers University, is being accused of spreading misogyny to minors on the platform.
He’s been kicked off of Twitter, but he’s been free to share his messages on TIkTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which campaigns for big tech companies to stop providing services to those who promote hate, told NewsNation’s “Banfield” that cases like Tate’s outline a serious problem.
“TikTok makes money of off Andrew Tate. … And they’ve helped him to expose his hatred to billions of people. They’ve chosen him algorithmically, sure, through an automated mechanism, but they’ve chosen to elevate him to billions of people,” Ahmed said Wednesday night on “Banfield.”
Legal consultant Alexandria Goddard says TIkTok has a responsibility to honor their terms of service.
“Every time you get an account, you agree to behave on that platform. And if he’s doing things that are against terms of service, they should delete him. But if he’s making money for them, it’s obvious why they wouldn’t want to get him off with their platform,” legal consultant Alexandria Goddard said on “Banfield.”
“MeToo: The Impact of Rape Culture in the Media” author Meenakshi Gigi Durham also weighed in, saying that it’s important to look at “ethics versus the law.”
“We’ve got to think about how influential he is. How are the things that he’s saying impacting people? What are the messages that he’s conveying? In the end, I think we really have to think about whether or not he’s causing harm,” Durham said. “While there is free speech in our country, there’s a moral compass that needs to be considered here.”