The Tate-space on YouTube: Ambient ideology and the limits of platform moderation

<jats:p>This article investigates the persistence and transformation of Andrew Tate’s presence on YouTube following the removal of his official channels in August 2022. Combining two empirical approaches—a small-scale analysis of top-ranked videos from YouTube search results in 2022 and 2024, and a large-scale data set of over 112k videos—we examine how Tate-related content continues to circulate and how the platform moderates such material. Our findings show that Tate remains highly visible through a diffuse and decentralized network of actors who repackage his messaging into interviews, remixes, and YouTube-native formats. This configuration produces what we term the “Tate-space”: an ambient ideological environment where motivational rhetoric, aspirational masculinity, and far-right talking points converge. We find that YouTube’s substantial moderation efforts are outpaced by the speed and scale of recommendation-driven circulation and that deplatforming, while symbolically significant, fails to disrupt the cultural and logistical dynamics that sustain Tate’s influence.</jats:p>