A heated twitter exchange led to the arrest of controversial influencer Andrew Tate.

On Dec. 27, Andrew Tate tweeted at climate activist Greta Thunberg about his large collection of sports cars and their carbon emissions. He asked the 19-year-old from Sweden what email he should send his car list to. Thunberg replied in epic fashion, tweeting, “email me at smalld*ckenergy.getalife.com.”

In one of the videos in his thread, Tate was seen at table with a box from a Romanian pizza chain, which alerted authorities of his presence in the European country. Just a few days later, he was arrested.

The 36-year-old internet personality was arrested in Ilofov, Romania on charges related to human trafficking, organized crime, and rape. Authorities were first alerted of the four suspects in 2021, and their other operations in the U.S. and Britain. Currently six victims have been identified and both Tate and his brother were detained by Romanian officials.

Junior Teagan Duffy thinks Tate only tweeted to receive attention.

“[He is] in my opinion a man who has nothing better to do than spew extremist prejudice crap in order to get views,” she said. “Tate chose to tweet at Thunberg because his name has been out of the media for a bit and he knew tweeting at [her] would get a rise.”

Senior Carly Goodman agrees with Teagan’s views.

“[He is] disgusting, gross, childish, sexist, misogynist, sickening,” she said.

Tate first grew his fame from his boxing career, where he was nationally ranked in the kickboxing category.  The Washington D.C. native also appeared on the CBS reality show “Big Brother” but left after just six days due to a video of him allegedly hitting a woman with his belt surfaced.

Despite the accusations, his brand still stays relevant.

Senior Jaxon Zemachson commends Tate for his branding.

“I think he is a marketing genius the way he gets himself out into the new constantly, yet I do believe he is a horrible person,” he said.

“I think that his arrest promotes his brand even more,” he added.  “The media is unintentionally spreading his ideals and images more than they know.”

Tate has been heavily scrutinized in the media in the past for his views on women’s rights.  Some of his most notable quotes are saying that “people who are raped ‘bear some responsibility,” as well as claiming that women are property of their husbands.  He has also made several appearances on InfoWars, the platform owned by Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones.

Teagan Duffy ’24 thinks the past examples of his controversial behavior makes the current situation much scarier.

“He has talked about his supposed treatment of women before, but it’s different when someone is actually found with evidence of them doing what they only talked about in hypotheticals,” she said.

The arrest being triggered by a series of tweets might be the most outrageous part of the entire situation.  Many were quick to applaud Greta Thunberg for her powerful, yet short tweet at Tate.  The Guardian even called it the “tweet of the century.”