Misogynistic social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are now suing their alleged victims for $5 million, according to VICE. The pair were indicted last month on charges of “rape, human trafficking, and forming an organized crime group to sexually exploit women” after being held in a Romanian prison since December.
Two of the women say that the Tates’ case against them has no merit, with others who’ve accused the brothers of abuse saying that the lawsuit is a “crude and malicious attempt to spread disinformation.” The publication obtained a copy of the lawsuit, and it states that they are suing for “defamation, loss of earnings, false imprisonment, conspiracy, and infliction of emotional distress.”
The lawsuit is in response to the raid that took place on their home in April last year, with them naming two women specifically—one from the U.K. and one from the U.S.—who they say triggered the raid where the women were removed from the property by Romanian police. The suit also goes after the American woman’s parents and a male friend of hers who notified the U.S. embassy of the brothers’ activities.
Romanian authorities say that the pair, as well as two other men, trafficked seven women into being camgirls on pornographic sites by using “loverboy” tactics: grooming them into sex work with false promises of love and relationships.
The Tates claim that Tristan met the American woman and it was she who wanted to move to Romania and do the sex work, and after some reluctance, they agreed. They claim that she then became “delusional” because the brothers were too busy working to devote time to her, so she worked with the British woman to “defraud the Tate brothers – and ultimately accuse… them of human trafficking and other grave crimes.”
Despite denying the charges against them, Andrew, who is part of the “Manosphere” and has offered courses and classes to other men on how to be a piece of garbage to and about women, has spoken about his “methods” extensively. He said of the “loverboy” strategy on a now-deleted page on his website (which advertised his Ph.D. – Pimping Hoes Degree – classes), “My job was to get women to fall in love with me. Literally. [M]eet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test if she’s quality, get her to fall in love with me to where she’d do anything I say, and then get her on webcam so we could become rich together.”
With his high profile, it may mean that we don’t ever stop hearing about or from him, even if he is in prison. His misogynistic ideas have spread to schools, getting in the minds of boys as young as nine years old, and with Tate being made so mainstream, it means that even if he can’t spew his vile rhetoric, someone else will, unfortunately, proudly carry that torch.
Sadly, the Tates’ effort to silence the women speaking out against them with a lawsuit isn’t an isolated incident. This kind of behavior has been emboldened by Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard in particular, with the result of that trial and the rampant misinformation spread about it online. Marilyn Manson has tried it in his legal battle over Evan Rachel Wood’s allegations against him, and now we’re seeing it again with this incident—and we’ll probably see it even more in the future if it’s not shut down quickly.
(featured image: YurolaitsAlbert)
