Online misogyny: Does Andrew Tate’s arrest spell the end of the 'manosphere'?

Legal troubles continue piling up on Andrew Tate, the former kickboxing world champion, turned social media influencer who once proudly proclaimed himself a “misogynist”.

On Monday night, Tate and his brother Tristan were detained in Romania and handed an arrest warrant issued by UK authorities over allegations of "sexual aggression" in a case dating back to 2012-2015. 

The brothers - who are both dual UK and US citizens - have rejected the charges. 

The British civil case against Tate is just the latest legal blow to the social media influencer, however. In December 2022, he was arrested along with his brother and two Romanian women over charges of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

Though formally indicted by Romanian prosecutors on all four charges, Tate continues to deny any wrongdoing.

Tate, who currently counts 8.9 million followers on X, has become something of a poster child for the manosphere - an umbrella term referring to an interconnected network of websites, blogs and online communities where groups of men promote toxic masculinity and misogyny. 

Their goal is often to fight against progressive ideas like gender equality.

“He really captured the imagination at one point, because he went viral extremely quickly and really managed to suck men into his worldview,” Cécile Simmons, research manager at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), told Euronews. 

“But the worldviews that seduce these men are not going away with him.”

While misogyny has deep roots in human history, the ideology has recently found fertile ground online, where often disgruntled men can bond over their frustration and anger at the world and women. 

“The manosphere, a collection of online