Self-styled misogynist influencer Andrew Tate cracked the most efficient tactic available in social media “game”. Last year he managed to be viral on social media in the blink of an eye. Considering how fast many Indonesians can adopt any foreign styles for their own benefits, will some people here copy Tate’s tactic and should we be worried about it?
According to an article from Glimpse, Tate, British-American former kickboxer, was able to become the fourth most searched person on Google in 2022 after Messi, Pele and Trump. Tate, a former kick boxing athlete and self-proclaimed entrepreneur, suddenly filled FYP (For You Page) TikTok and Youtubeshort with his controversial statements. One of the secret keys he went viral with a fairly high retention rate is his program called Hustler University.
For those who don’t know about it, in simple terms Hustler University is an easy-get-rich training program hosted on the Discord server. This training program contains training on copywriting, cryptocurrency, dropshipping, and finance in general for only 50 USD per month. Within Hustler University there is a scheme to become an affiliate with a monetary incentive. Basically, affiliates will get 25 USD for each new admission.
This scheme is the key for Tate to go viral without the need for excessive promotional costs. This is how he done it:
First, he creates as much content as possible, usually by attending as many podcasts as possible by stating quite controversial statements. He then uploaded them to social media such as YouTube, this collection of content will be used by the affiliates as promotional materials. The affiliates will edit it into short video clips.
Each affiliate will subsequently create several fan accounts that contain these clips complete with referral link to their account. With this scheme, Tate is able to have hundreds to thousands of fan accounts without the need to spend money; he even made millions of dollars from this Hustler University.
While many have questioned his method in raising money and popularity, it’s only part of the game.
What concerns people most is what he has been conveying, described by media as extreme misogyny capable of radicalizing men and boys to commit harm against women offline.
Tate says women belong in the home, can’t drive, and are a man’s property. He also states rape victims must “bear responsibility”, adding that he dates women aged 18–19 because he can “make an imprint” on them, according to videos posted online. He also talks about hitting and choking women, trashing their belongings and stopping them from going out in other clips.
He also suggests his followers to focus on controversial issues. In one guide, Hustler’s University students are told that attracting “comments and controversy” is the key to success: “What you ideally want is a mix of 60-70% fans and 40-30% haters. You want arguments, you want war.”
The impacts of his statements and clips have been massive with the Guardian, for instance, reporting that many Incidents include the verbal harassment of female teachers or other pupils and outbursts echoing Tate’s views in a number of schools in UK.
Potential copycats in Indonesia
Despite a dip in popularity due to his arrest and bans from various social media outlets, Tate’s influence remains strong.
Tate’s search traffic has indeed dropped earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be other people who want to go viral quickly like Andrew.
Those some people could be Indonesian as Tate definitely offers a huge appeal to people in Indonesia, the country with world’s largest Muslim population, especially after he claimed he had converted to Islam.
Of course, it’s still fresh in our mind after the boom in cryptocurrency a few years ago, about a few months later, Indonesian knock offs emerged. Who can forget I-Coin from a famous preacher or ASIX from one member of the House of Representatives which was launched last year and turned out to be nothing more than a rug pull.
Imagine if Tate’s affiliate scheme that justifies any means to achieve his goals, and his extreme misogynistic teaching are utilized by some in Indonesia, a country where more and more Muslims turn to conservatism.
Let’s just say there is one person, let’s call him X to make it simpler, X will build branding according to his wishes, such as being strong and masculine. After his branding was neatly built, he decided to run as a political candidate in 2024. With an affiliate scheme for hundreds of fan accounts plus the deployment of buzzer bot accounts a la 2016 election style, imagine how exciting the kerfuffle would be, and how attacks and harassment against women will multiply in number.
With strong persisting conservative view that resemblance to Tate’s misogynistic view in Indonesia the emergence of copycats will weaponize supporters of this view.
Weaponized FYP Plus Buzzer: A Recipe for Disaster
Who has forgotten the state of social media before and after 2014 and 2019 elections? Buzzer accounts are roaming everybody’s timelines, spread of video clips that are actually hoaxes pushed into almost all WhatsApp groups.
Furthermore, the media seem to neglect its own basic principles of independency and balance reporting, with different TV station, for instance, frame news and issues based on the interests of their owner. The situation at that time was really felt polarizing.
Now, imagine that situation, and crank that up to eleven. That’s what will happen if Indonesians start to copycat Tate’s method and misogynistic mindset. Thousands of buzzer accounts fight and create insults and attacks in the comment columns, and thousands of fan accounts from various political candidates will flood all social media applications.
This is exacerbated by the algorithms used by companies that own social media, such as Meta, which seems support polarization. Quoted from Daily Mail, a memo leaked from Meta, meta is aware of the influence of social media on polarization, and instead supports it for reasons to increasing traffic.
Add all of the above with the inability, unwillingness and laziness of Indonesian netizens to read the full story, we have a recipe for disaster in our hands. The worst possibility is that this online discord can become schism and descend into the real world.
What can we do? Personally, we can protect our families from hoaxes that are spread among our families and pray that the authorities can act decisively in handling buzzer accounts, while we plead all politicians taking part in the 2024 elections to avoid not the above method.
Finger cross, we can survive next year’s political circus without any significant schism.
