It has not been the greatest week for kickboxer, social media influencer, and genuinely toxic masculine man Andrew Tate.
Earlier this week, he got owned — and we do mean owned — by Greta Thunberg. That was embarrassing enough. But then yesterday, things managed to get even worse for Tate when he was detained in Romania on suspicion of human trafficking, rape, and organized crime. Or at least attempting organized crime.
On Thursday, prosecutors said that they found evidence that six women had been sexually exploited “using physical violence and mental constraint” by members of the group.
The women had been forced into making pornographic content for distribution on social media for financial gain to the group, they said.
…
Prosecutors said that the brothers have been under criminal investigation since April, according to Reuters, when Tate’s Bucharest mansion was searched by police in connection with human trafficking allegations.
Yikes. Tough break, Andrew.
Now, as much as we’re enjoying the prospect of Andrew Tate getting his comeuppance, it’s still important to be honest about how his arrest came to pass. Interestingly, Greta Thunberg is actually getting credit for ultimately being the one who brought him down:
“This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes,” she wrote in a tweet, an apparent reference to reports in the Romanian newspaper Gândul that Tate’s social media activity, including a video message posted by the influencer that used pizza boxes from a Romanian takeout chain as a prop, alerted authorities to his presence in the country.
The thing is, apparently a pizza box had nothing whatsoever to do with the arrest:
And…scene https://t.co/Qek7VKH4t1 pic.twitter.com/an695Kqxh9
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) December 30, 2022
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) December 30, 2022
Oh.
The Romanians have to be scratching their heads over this. They're like "we arrested these guys for sex trafficking" and the first question is "any comment on the pizza box meme?" https://t.co/25x5zwIAV1
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) December 30, 2022
Huh.
Anyway, good for the Washington Post and New York Times, the two newspapers I subscribe to, for actually, you know, calling someone in Romania and asking.
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) December 30, 2022
OK, so if this wasn’t about a pizza box, then how did the whole “pizza box” narrative get started? Well, ladies and gentlemen, you will no doubt be shocked to know that the narrative appears to have originated with Alejandra Caraballo. We know, we know … who’d’ve guessed that a serial liar with no sense of journalistic ethics would do something like that?
But here we are:
Romanian authorities needed proof that Andrew Tate was in the country so they reportedly used his social media posts. His ridiculous video yesterday featured a pizza from a Romanian pizza chain, Jerry's Pizza, confirming he was in the country.
This is absolutely epic. pic.twitter.com/kyz4pqegkJ
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) December 29, 2022
Look at all those sweet, sweet likes and retweets! Makes the lie totally worth it!
Not only did Greta Thunberg destroy Andrew Tate with her tweet, she made him so angry he inadvertently tipped off Romanian authorities of his presence in Romania with his lame comeback video.
Greta is an absolute legend. pic.twitter.com/VkuvYfZvAd
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) December 29, 2022
A downfall in 4 parts. pic.twitter.com/76bkZHaA7o
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) December 29, 2022
Greta's tweet has now become one of the top 25 most liked tweets of all time with 2.8 million likes. It could easily hit the top ten by the weekend. This is absolutely legendary. https://t.co/edp071iCdC pic.twitter.com/C3A5xZL1Oq
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) December 29, 2022
There’s another moral to this story, of course. And that moral is: Do not, under any circumstances, take Alejandra Caraballo at her word, because she is a lying liar who lies.
Of course, she has very little incentive not to lie because there are so many people and media outlets who are willing to treat her as though she is a serious person who should be taken seriously.
i dont know if they have ghost edited this to remove the causality but it's sort of funny how some of the reports don't go so far as to make the connection but do just randomly put it out there https://t.co/gNtYuRhZ36 pic.twitter.com/wBH140MiS0
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) December 30, 2022
Could no one be bothered to verify Caraballo’s claims immediately after she made them? It’s not like she hasn’t given the media cause to question her motives before.
Tate was literally posting on social media about how he was in Romania days earlier. The entire Greta-Pizza thing was made up by one very unreliable Twitter account and got passed around. https://t.co/uFSXA6lAIG
— AG (@AGHamilton29) December 30, 2022
“One very unreliable Twitter account.” Yeah, that’s basically Alejandra Caraballo in a nutshell.
1) Tate’s post from Dec 25th about being in Romania
2) Caraballo inventing the pizza thing, which outlets then copied
Remember this is the same “expert” that outlets keep quoting on stuff like Twitter being on the verge of shutting down a month ago. pic.twitter.com/M4gbXX4HI4
— AG (@AGHamilton29) December 30, 2022
It’s not a big thing and funny in this case, but the problem is this type of viral misinformation happens a lot because reporters take stuff from people lie Caraballo and treat it as if it’s reliable. And next time it could be on something far more important.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) December 30, 2022
But see, that last bit, “and next time it could be on something far more important,” is exactly why Caraballo’s lie is actually a very big deal and a huge problem. Almost 100,000 retweets and more than half a million likes on a tweet that’s an outright lie. If Caraballo or someone like her can get away with that, can actually be cited by ostensibly respectable news outlets as a reliable source, then what’s to stop a far more egregious and damaging lie from catching fire?
I just fundamentally disagree with the notion expressed by many in my replies that it doesn’t matter that this isn’t true bc it’s “harmless.” It’s not true! Lol. You don’t get to complain about misinformation only when it suits you.
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) December 30, 2022
Dreyfuss is absolutely correct. That’s why we’re going to post his tweets linking to his own write-up on the subject:
I'm sorry to say that Andrew Tate was not arrested because of his stupid Greta Thunberg video https://t.co/A7N9HpFxpE
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) December 30, 2022
I unlocked this post because I am doing a service for the world by debunking this fake news https://t.co/A7N9HpFxpE
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) December 30, 2022
Dreyfuss actually looked into this stuff and, realizing he himself had been mistaken, took the time to correct his own rushes to judgment.
More media should take their cues from Dreyfuss — and stay the hell away from Alejandra Caraballo.
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Update:
Alejandra Caraballo has admitted she made up the pizza box hoax in a thread where she is still trying to explain that it was right for her to make it up and she is a serious person pic.twitter.com/jm8yzcpzR5
— Jack Posobiec ✝️🇻🇦 (@JackPosobiec) December 30, 2022
Because of course.
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Related:
About the expert media’s consulting for reports on Musk creating a dangerous atmosphere…
WaPo’s expert source on Twitter doesn’t mind doxxing those fascists who are for ‘free speech’
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