Misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate is currently in a Romanian prison. But someone on TikTok is trying to convince legions of followers that Tate is free, posting videos, and giving self-help advice.
“I’m back. I’m finally back,” a man in a black mask wearing a hoodie and white blazer says to over 2 million viewers on TikTok. Using the username @drreality.life, this man impersonates Tate, wearing an outfit he’s previously worn, using similar hand gestures as Tate, and using his distinctive voice, which may be AI-generated. Dr. Reality began posting on February 14, gaining over 200,000 followers and millions of views by telling viewers he is there to help them change their lives.
Videos by VICE
After being alerted by Motherboard about the videos, TikTok banned @drreality.life. TikTok told Motherboard that the account violated community guidelines and all Andrew Tate content would be deleted, as he is currently banned from the platform.
So far, Dr. Reality has evaded answering viewers directly when they ask if he is Andrew Tate. He says things like “thanks for support!” in response to comments, without providing any more information. He frequently alludes to “being back” in videos by saying things like “If you think about it, you probably realized who I am.” Many people are falling for this schtick, saying things like “God bless you we all know you would be back❤️” and “its good to see you in good shape,all the best man.”
By posing as Tate, Dr. Reality hopes to make a buck. The link in his bio goes to a site called “Behind Real Reality,” where you can get an “Online Wealth Creation Course” for a sale price of €19,99. This is a knock-off version of Tate’s own Hustler’s University, which was an educational online program that cost $49.99 per month and taught mostly boys and young men how to “make money online.”
Tate’s program resembled multi-level marketing and taught students how to participate in an affiliate-link scheme that asked them to share viral clips of him. His Hustler’s University was shut down after financial services company Stripe stopped processing subscriptions for the platform, though a successor program is now active. Dr. Reality’s website advertises it will only take “four weeks to turn your life around,” and leads customers to the Dr. Reality private Instagram page, which shows a picture of a young man with the name “Peter Bee.” “Dis be Peter Work Hard Have Yet to Play Hard,” the account’s bio reads.
Making AI-generated voices has become a lot easier thanks to new startups such as ElevenLabs, which said it found an “increasing number of voice cloning misuse cases.” Motherboard found 4chan members using the product to generate voices of famous people like Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Emma Watson to spew racist and other hateful content. Later, the same trolls used AI-voice generators to replicate voice actors’ voices and had them read out the victim’s home addresses and posted them online. Motherboard reporter Joesph Cox was also able to clone his own voice using AI and break into his own bank account with the AI voice. These recent developments reveal the threat towards anyone who has videos or audio files of their voices online. It has become easy to impersonate anyone, even people who aren’t necessarily A-list celebrities.
It seems that Dr. Reality is trying to take advantage of the fact that Tate is currently banned from platforms like TikTok—though he remains active on Twitter—to gain a following as he attempts to share “Tate’s comeback.” Tate, known for his deeply misogynistic comments, was banned from a number of social media platforms in August, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, after he violated their hate speech policies. In December, he was arrested in Romania on suspicion of organized crime and human trafficking. He is currently being held in detention for a third month after his appeal for release has been rejected for the fourth time.
VICE World News reported that seven years before his arrest in Romania, Tate was investigated over allegations of sexual assault and physical abuse in the UK. In the dozens of messages and voicenotes that VICE World News reviewed, Tate said “I love raping you” and “I fucking loved how much you hated it,” to a woman who accused him of rape.
Despite Tate being banned from TikTok, analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) identified more than 100 accounts that frequently promote content featuring Tate on the platform in November, as reported by The Observer.
In response to its investigation, TikTok said it would be removing the reported accounts and any “copycat” accounts that broke its rules on impersonation. We also reached out to the email listed on Dr. Reality’s website and did not receive any response.
Update: This article was updated to reflect that TikTok banned the scammer’s account after being alerted by Motherboard.
