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Abbie Chatfield reveals horrifying DMs from teenage boys: 'Really rife'

While co-hosting The Project on Sunday night, Abbie Chatfield shared that she has been receiving horrifying DMs from teenage boys recently.

The 27-year-old made the startling admission when the panel discussed Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer and Big Brother contestant, whose violent misogynistic videos have been viewed over 11 billion times on TikTok.

Abbie Chatfield on The Sunday Project
Abbie Chatfield revealed on The Sunday Project that she is receiving horrifying DMs from teenage boys who are fans of Andrew Tate. Photo: Ten

Tate has argued that women are a "man's property" and suggests that women who have been sexually assaulted should "bear some responsibility", among many other horrifying things.

His extreme views are being copied by young boys who are being served his content on TikTok.

Sadly, he is now one of the most Googled people in the world.

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Abbie, who is known for her feminist views, shared her own experiences with Tate's followers, telling the panel, "I kind of exist in the realm of feminism and calling out misogyny, and on my podcast, my radio show, I’ve been asked (about him)".

"I do feel like I really want to ignore him. I want to suffocate him of any oxygen in media, because the more I engage with his content – even to research, for a radio segment – if I look at his TikToks, or he’s tagged in a TikTok and I look at it for too long, that feeds the algorithm and it feeds out more to my followers and to the followers who are already engaging in that content.

"It is getting a bit too big to ignore now. But I do still fear that if I speak about it to my followers or my listeners, it doesn’t really achieve anything. I’m sure those who are my listeners already feel this way, they agree that yes he’s disgusting, he’s awful."

She continued, "I’m not sure me speaking about it in a closed circuit will help anything. All it will do is have those who agree with me engage with his content more."

Hamish MacDonald asked whether Abbie has seen "evidence" of Tate's influence online.

"Absolutely," she quickly responded. "I’m getting DMs from what appear to be early teen boys saying, ‘I hope Andrew Tate destroys you,’ or things along that line.

"I also get comments calling me ‘Abbie Tate’, and comments on TikTok especially. That’s where it’s really, really rife."

She also slammed TikTok's content moderation, "I upload a TikTok in a white singlet, with a bra on, and it gets deleted in a minute, wouldn’t even go up. But there’s endless videos of him saying that women are property, and extremely vile, misogynistic things. How can that slip through the cracks but me in a singlet can’t?"

Rachel Corbett also slammed the social media platform, "When kids look at Instagram and TikTok, and the idea of 11.6 billion views as a success, that then says, ‘Well those views must be good, because look at how famous he is. So I want to emulate that.’ It’s just really dangerous."

The Project panel
Abbie also slammed TikTok's moderation, saying she can't upload a video of herself in a singlet, but he can share videos saying "women are property". Photo: Ten

She added, "I feel like TikTok has a responsibility, particularly if those are in the terms of their platform, to remove misogynistic posts. To not be feeding that out even more and feeding the beast."

It comes after Instagram, Facebook and Twitter were slammed for allowing Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee to share a full frontal nude photo to the sites, with Facebook and Instagram taking hours to remove the photo. Twitter took even longer.

It sparked a huge debate about the double standards, with many photos of clothed women being taken down for violating nudity rules.

Social media users slammed the sites' double standards, with journalist Lola Medez tweeting, "So Tommy Lee can post a picture of his penis on @instagram that’s still up three hours later but a picture of my curvy booty in a thong bikini gets taken down? Cool, cool."

Instagram states it does not allow nude photos, with the website explaining, "This includes photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks."

"It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos in the context of breastfeeding, birth giving and after-birth moments, health-related situations or an act of protest are allowed."

For sexual assault and family and domestic violence support you can call 1800respect on 1800 737 732.

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