Andrew Tate still reaching young audiences through devotee Adin Ross: report

Controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate is still getting his views across to impressionable young minds through his devotee Adin Ross, according to a new report by Rolling Stone.

Ross, 22, rose to fame streaming himself playing video games on the site Twitch, but his content has changed dramatically since he became close to the former professional kickboxer.

According to Rolling Stone, Ross’ videos have gone from discussing video games to airing “far-right perspectives,” ranting about cancel culture and even giving airtime to an anonymous neo-Nazi, even though he himself is Jewish.

Ross has continued his support after Tate, 36, and his brother, Tristan, were arrested in Bucharest, Romania, in December accused of human trafficking, rape and forming an organized criminal group.

They and two co-accused were released to house arrest on March 31 while the criminal investigation continues.

They have denied any wrongdoing and have not been formally charged with any crime.

Ross’ first conversation with Tate – who is banned from mainstream social media sites including Instagram, Facebook and TikTok because of his views as a self-described misogynist, who previously said women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted – has amassed over 7 million views on YouTube.

Although Tate is officially banned from YouTube, Ross has posted videos of them chatting together which are all still available on the site, many of which have attracted over 500,000 views.

He also revealed in a January Instagram post he had shaved his head, allegedly in support of Tate. 

“It’s a privilege to have hair, bro,” Ross told another streamer, according to the report. “But I’m not the best version of myself, so I don’t deserve to have privileges.”  

Tate posted a tweet in January in which he said he was allowed five visitors in addition to his attorney. “4 are family members and the 5th is @adinross,” he wrote. 

Tate has maintained he was banned from various social media platforms because of his “traditional masculine values,” according to an interview on Fox. 

“I have fast cars and a big house and a lot of money and a beautiful girlfriend, and they thought this was very, very threatening,” he said. 

“They banned me simply because I had large swathes of the population agreeing to very traditional masculine values,” Tate added.

Ross, a one-time Twitch “role model” was ultimately banned from the site, and moved his streams to the rapidly growing site Kick. A Twitch spokesperson told the website Dexerto Ross’ ban was enacted for showing unmoderated hateful conduct in his chat.

Kick is said to be less aggressive at moderating messages and with Ross’ platform change, came an influx of hate-filled comments from users onto his videos. These include swastikas and anti-Semitic content.

Ross did not speak to Rolling Stone for its article. His sister, Naomi Ross, told the magazine her brother did not always agree with Tate’s views, but added, “when you are talking to somebody who’s very confident and gives you really good advice about, you know, being the best version of yourself, that energy is very intoxicating.”

Naomi said Adin is not sexist, and is “very respectful towards women,” according to the report.  As for the swastika comments flooding her brother’s videos, she told Rolling Stone: “Yeah, that’s scared me, and I don’t like that at all.”