Influencers enjoy many perks in life.
With their power to "influence," they can promote and sell just about anything to their fans and followers. The more people look up to the influencers they admire, the more money the influencers earn.
When this dynamic plays out online, it's pure business—it's always been that way.
Andrew Tate is a controversial figure known for his online presence and strong opinions on various topics, including success, masculinity, and wealth. His rose to fame through social media platforms, where his content often featured themes of self-improvement, financial success, and controversial views on gender roles.
And this is where the far-right influencer can earn himself an additional cash.
Andrew Tate has what he calls "The Real World," which is a self-proclaimed "online university" that hosts courses on fitness, finance and content creation.
Available on a dedicated website, if offers "advanced training and mentoring," right from the guru himself, all for a price of $50 per month.
"Money making is a skill," the website states. "We will teach you how to master it."
Formerly known as "Hustler’s University," the site claims to have more than 100,000 users, meaning that Tate is enjoying an estimated $5 million per month extra cash, injected into his bank account from this "university."
The thing is, the site is far from secure.
What this means, it isn't that hard for hackers to breach the website, and peek what's hidden in the database.
Unnamed hackers managed to broke into the website when Tate was streaming an episode of his show "Emergency Meeting" on Rumble.
Citing "hacktivism" as their motive, suggesting an issue with Tate’s particular brand of toxic discourse and his alleged propensity toward sex trafficking underage girls, the hackers accessed the platform's primary chatroom and uploaded new emojis, such as a transgender flag, a feminist fist, and an AI-generated image of Tate draped in a rainbow flag, among others.
They also temporarily banned some users, deleted attachments, and crashed users' clients.
First reported by The Daily Dot, it's reported that about 794,000 usernames, believed to belong to current and former members of a platform, along with the contents of 221 public and 395 private chat servers, have been compromised.
Adding salt to the gaping wound, the hackers also leaked a list of 324,382 unique email addresses of users of the platform who were removed due to non-payment.
Andrew Tate is a former kickboxer and reality TV star.
Having built a significant online following, Tate is then known for being a prominent figure in the “manosphere”—a network of websites, blogs, and forums that advocate for traditional masculinity.
Here, Tate has lots of supporters who see him as a motivational figure.
But due to his frequent controversial statements and lifestyle, Tate also receives lots of criticisms. Many argue that much of Tate's content promotes toxic masculinity and misogyny.
In all, his divisive presence keeps him at the center of debates surrounding internet culture and social issues.
At this time, Tate is under investigation in Romania on charges of human trafficking, along with multiple investigations in both Romania and the UK.
He is accused of sex trafficking minors, rape, and creating an organized crime ring to exploit women, though Tate denies all the allegations.
Initially, DIICOT asked the Bucharest court to arrest the Tate brothers for 30 days, but the judge decided to place Andrew Tate under house arrest and Tristan under judiciary control for that period, their representative Mateea Petrescu said.
Tate's accounts are already banned in several social media platforms for violating their guidelines, but still, Tate's influence continues to grow.
His ability to create a personal branding helped him expand his influence into business.