Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
Former kickboxer turned “misogynist” social media personality Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested last week in Romania on suspicion of human trafficking and rape. Soon after, social media platforms went rife with video purportedly showing Tate “after his release” in Romania “without any charges.” One such footage of Tate’s interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is going viral on social media with a claim that the former has been freed. Newschecker found the claim to be false.
In the video Tate can be heard defending himself and saying, “I was not arrested… what happened is I suffered from a case of swatting.” He can be heard explaining, “it’s (swatting) where you call the police and you say … somebody has a gun or a hostage situation and the SWAT team arrives. Somebody made a phone call to the American embassy saying that I was holding women at my house… (Police) turned up, they investigated, they realised nobody was in the house against their will, there was no crime committed… we had to go to the police station for 45 minutes for pieces of paper, we filled them in and we were let go…”
The video is going viral on Twitter.
Archived versions of such tweets can be seen here, here, here, here and here.
Several Facebook users also shared the clip.
Links to such Facebook posts can be found here, here, here and here.
Also Read: Video Of Man Rescuing A Deer With Frozen Snout Is From Kazakhstan, Not US
Fact Check/Verification
On analysing the viral clip, we spotted Fox News’ logo on the bottom left corner of the screen and ‘Tucker Carlson today’ on the top left.
Taking a clue, we conducted a keyword search “Andrew Tate,” “Tucker Carlson” “Fox News interview” & “swatting” on Google which led us to an article by Dexerto, dated August 26, 2022, titled ‘Andrew Tate claims he was swatted with fake report of human trafficking.’
Displaying a screengrab from the viral clip, the article stated, “Following his widespread ban from many social media platforms, Andrew Tate appeared on Fox News to discuss the situation and allegations against him. He claims that allegations of human trafficking against him were the result of a swatting incident in Romania.”
Reportedly, Tate’s residence in Romania was raided in April as part of a human trafficking investigation after police received a tip about an American woman held against her will. Both Andrew and Tristan Tate were brought in for questioning, but no arrests were made. Andrew Tate had said in a YouTube video that the accusation was based on a tip from the boyfriend of a woman who attended a party at the Tates’ home. They had denied allegations of any involvement in a human trafficking ring.
Following this, we looked up “Andrew Tate,” & “Fox News interview” on Google and set the time frame for search for August 1 to August 31, 2022. This yielded the video uploaded on the Fox News website, dated August 25, 2022, titled ‘Andrew Tate says COVID response was ‘massive overreaction’ ‘.
Around 6:15 minutes in the video, we spotted the viral clip where Tate can be seen claiming himself to be a victim of “swatting,” after being quizzed about human trafficking by Carlson.
The footage from the interview was uploaded on the official Facebook page of Tucker Carlson Tonight on August 26, 2022, with a caption, “Andrew Tate built a massive following on social media. Then, suddenly, he was removed from all platforms. Lots of allegations are being made about him, so we wanted to talk to him directly about what happened. Here it is. Also, you can watch the full interview right now on FOX Nation.”
We could thus conclude that the viral interview footage showing Tate narrating how he allegedly became a victim of “swatting” is not recent, and was aired in August, 2022.
But Is Tate Freed ?
Newschecker continued our investigation to ascertain whether the Tate brothers have been released after they were detained last week in Romania on suspicion of human trafficking or not.
A Google search for “Andrew Tate released” did not throw up any relevant news reports from the past 24 hours. However, it did yield a report by The Guardian, stating, “In the hours after his detention, TikTok and Twitter were flooded with posts falsely claiming he had been freed and conspiracy theories saying he had been set up, Observer analysis shows.”
The report further added, “On Friday, it was confirmed that he would spend the next 30 days in detention as Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism continues its inquiries.”
On December 30, 2022, BBC had reported, “The controversial British-American influencer Andrew Tate will be held in detention in Romania for 30 days, after a court agreed to a police request.”
Other news reports on the Tate brothers 30-day-detention can be seen here, here and here.
Till the time of publishing this article there has been no credible news report saying that Tate has been released.
Hence, we could conclude that Tate brothers are still in detention.
Conclusion
Viral claim that Andrew Tate has been released by the Romanian authorities following his arrest last week is false. Tate is still in detention, by the time of publishing this article. Additionally, the viral footage of his interview with Fox News dates back to August, 2022.
Result: False
Sources
Article By Dexerto, Dated August 26, 2022
Report By Fox News, Dated August 25, 2022
Facebook Post By Tucker Carlson Tonight, Dated August 26, 2022
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
