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Manosphere figurehead and notorious misogynist Andrew Tate has the #1 bestseller spot on Substack this week. Is the platform at risk of becoming as toxic as every other social media platform?
Andrew Tate has found his way onto Substack.
The long-form essay sharing platform (where we publish The Common Thred and The Gen Zer every week) is mostly used by progressive, creative types and has built a reputation for thought-provoking content that champions nuance. News that the misogynistic manosphere socialite himself has weaseled his way into this space has not gone down well with users, unsurprisingly.
In fact, Tate is currently sitting at #1 on the ‘new bestsellers’ list on Substack’s main home page, and boasts over 1.1 million subscribers. Those numbers seem a little bit suspicious, though, given that his posts are currently averaging around 50 to 60 likes each, with some not even hitting double digits.
A brief scroll through his content and you’ll be greeted with Tate’s standard shtick: videos with cigars, cars, chatter about online businesses, and the usual digs at women.
There is paid content (though we are obviously not willing to cough up cash to see any of that) and long-form video blogs that usually shill his own websites, courses, and cryptocurrency platforms.
So far, it seems his content hasn’t landed with Substack readers. We wouldn’t be surprised if his team has paid for subscription bots and artificially pushed his profile to the trending page.
Even so, his sudden, mainstream visibility on the platform will send ripples through the community and may shake the reputation Substack has built over the past few years.
‘Truly appalled to see Andrew Tate given a platform on Substack,’ wrote Caroline Donahue. ‘Earning money from this message makes me doubt how safe a space this platform will remain going forward.’
This sentiment has been echoed by others who also have similar suspicions about Tate’s follower numbers. ‘Andrew Tate being a new best seller is provably very, very astro-turfed, and I almost guarantee most of his paid subscribers are fake accounts,’ posted Dissent in Bloom.
Regardless of whether his profile is inflating engagement metrics, Tate’s appearance highlights the annoying reality of managing any online social platform.
Despite advocating for intentional content and long-form thinkpieces, Substack ultimately needs to make money to stay afloat, which means inviting anyone to share their content – even if it kind of (massively) sucks.
There’s concern that by opening the door to other creators who don’t care about the integrity of their posts, Substack will be steadily flooded with toxic, algorithmic-centric, AI-obsessed slop that has plagued X, Instagram, and TikTok over the past few years.
There’s data to suggest that Gen Z is beginning to turn away from social media entirely because of this. Yet, it has become essential for community-driven platforms to sustain themselves.
