Andrew Tate moves to anti-'cancel culture' streaming platform Rumble as social media ban causes surge in activity
The "king of toxic masculinity" was removed from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube last month and has since announced a move to the alternative video site Rumble, which has seen a wave in activity. But experts say his reach will likely remain diminished.
Sunday 4 September 2022 05:18, UK
Activity on anti-"cancel culture" streaming platform Rumble surged following Andrew Tate's relaunch on the site after he was banned from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook for breaching rules on harmful content.
On the week of 22 August when Mr Tate announced a "mass exodus" to the platform, daily active users on Rumble surged 45.3% compared to the previous week, according to data collected by digital intelligence company Similarweb.
The former kickboxer turned social media influencer says the platform will offer him the freedom to continue creating content, some of which has been described by women's charities as containing "extreme misogyny".
But social media experts say the decision to relaunch on an alternative platform like Rumble is a "well-trodden path" for controversial figures banned from mainstream sites and many struggle to retain the same level of influence they once enjoyed.
'Deplatforming' and move to Rumble
Mr Tate gripped social media for months this summer as outrage at his controversial, often offensive, views exploded.
But in late August, he was cut off from his millions-strong following when major platforms banned his accounts for violating their guidelines on harmful content. Some of the most notorious clips show Mr Tate claiming that women are the "property" of men and that women bear "some responsibility" for being raped.
Mr Tate has denied claims that he holds misogynistic views and has accused his critics of taking old footage out of context.
Soon after being banned from mainstream platforms, the influencer announced in an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News that he would instead be using Rumble. The streaming platform describes itself as "immune to cancel culture" and is one of the few sites that hosts the infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Around this time, traffic to Rumble’s site surged.
The figures do not say how many of those who visited Rumble over this time period were doing so because of Mr Tate, and Rumble has reported steady growth in activity on the site for some time now.
However, Mr Tate's content on Rumble received significantly more engagement after he was prohibited from posting on other social media platforms and announced his move to the site than it did previously.
Until July of this year, Mr Tate's Rumble videos rarely received more than 5,000 views and often far less than that.
An archived version of his Rumble profile from 26 August shows episode 13 of his live podcast "Emergency Meeting" at just 4,265 views.
The same stream on YouTube had amassed 473,000 views by 20 August.
The next episode - which could no longer be streamed on YouTube because of the ban - clocked up more than 680,000 views on Rumble.
A similar growth in following was seen on Mr Tate's Gettr page. Unlike Rumble, Gettr is a text-based social media platform but it is founded on a similar premise of what it calls "rejecting political censorship" and "promoting free speech".
The earliest version of Mr Tate's Gettr page available via the Internet Archive is on 20 August, which is after he had achieved internet notoriety and had his accounts taken off of some platforms.
Despite his internet fame, Mr Tate's following on the site at this time was just over 4,000.
Just two weeks later, his follower count has increased to 90,000.
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But experts say this phenomenon is not uncommon for controversial figures who have been banned from mainstream platforms.
"This is a well-trodden path by controversial figures online. Like Alex Jones and the others, he has found Rumble and Rumble have found him. It's a match made in controversy heaven," said Matt Navarra, a social media expert and industry analyst.
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But Mr Navarra says that while Mr Tate may attract a sizeable audience on Rumble, it is "not comparable to the scale of the audience one can attract on the platforms he's banned from".
This point is echoed by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, which campaigns against online hate and disinformation.
"Our research, along with leading academic research, shows that while these 'influencers' might transition some of their following to alternative platforms after being removed from more mainstream ones, they almost invariably fail to regain both the following and broader content reach they had on platforms with billions of users and recommendation engines like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube," said the group's CEO, Imran Ahmed.
Rumble did not respond to Sky News' request for comment.
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