How does a self-professed misogynist become one of the world’s most influential people, and remain so even after being charged with rape and human trafficking? Andrew Tate’s meteoric rise to infamy has provoked global uproar, but the controversial figure is also a terrifying symptom of the increasingly fractured world in which we live, propelled by the social media platforms beneath our fingertips. Doom Scroll: Andrew Tate & The Dark Side of the Internet goes beyond the headlines to explore how and why someone with such toxic views can take hold of so many millions of young followers. The film highlights the dark influence of social media platforms and how their carefully-crafted algorithms have shaped our world today. The documentary speaks with his critics and those who know him, along with some of the architects of the social media algorithms which came to allow extreme, hateful and misogynistic content to proliferate – all in the pursuit of profit for the platforms. In a new look at the dark side of the internet, the film uncovers the online forces boosting extreme content and catapulting inflammatory figures like Andrew Tate to worldwide attention, and how this content can spill over into shocking real-world harm.
