How was it possible for Andrew Tate, the misogynistic influencer who has been instructing teenage boys how to control and abuse women (“Bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck”), to amass a cult following without mainstream society catching on? By the time his name started appearing in news headlines in August 2022, after he was banned from TikTok, he was already one of the most googled people in the world with millions of fans. Since his arrest by Romanian police in December on allegations of trafficking and rape, which Tate denies, there has been a renewed flurry of attention not just on the horrific content of his viral videos, but on the social media platforms which enabled him to build his online empire and entice thousands to pay for his “Hustlers University”. Parents and politicians want to know: where did he come from? And why did no one notice how so many young men were gradually being brainwashed by a self-professed “misogynist”?
Tucked away in an unremarkable Georgian building in the heart of London is an organisation full of people who did. The enigmatically named Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) sounds like something out of a John Le Carré thriller. It’s a think tank, founded in 2006 to tackle extremism. At first that mostly meant focusing on the threat of Islamist radicalisation, but since then their remit has expanded: white supremacy, climate disinformation, the far right, extreme homophobia, hatred of women. And that includes misogynists such as Tate.
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