An Australian YouTuber has been named in a renewed bid by self-described misogynist Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan to sue a group of social media commentators for defamation.
After the users, many of whom were known only by their online usernames, initially won a bid to have the case dismissed in a Florida court due to a lack of jurisdiction, the Tate brothers last week filed an amended complaint naming six of the accused including Adelaide man Nathan Pope.
In the new claim, the Tate brothers — who have millions of followers online — argue Mr Pope and the other defendants acted “intentionally, maliciously or with reckless disregard for the truth” and directed their social media posts “into the state of Florida”.
They alleged the online posts were made “specifically and improperly to influence public opinion against” them.
The Tate brothers have also lodged a separate lawsuit seeking to compel social media platform X to unmask the identities of “Doe Defendants” to continue the defamation suit against those social media users.
Adelaide YouTuber Nathan Pope is hopeful the Tate’s lawsuit will be dismissed. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)
Mr Pope, who is known as “Gadget” online, was initially one of the anonymous defendants the Tate brothers had sought to identify, but has now been named in the amended complaint.
“I feel bemused,” he said.
“I have been very public with my identity for years now, appearing in the media numerous times, so I am not sure what took them so long or why they were previously telling the court that I was hiding my identity.”
Mr Pope’s YouTube channel is largely dedicated to criticism of the Tate brothers because he felt they were “recruiting young boys” and “exploiting them into a cult environment”.
He said being named changes “very little” as the legal battle continues, and he remains steadfast that he has “not defamed anyone”.
Mr Pope said he and some of the other defendants were crowdfunding for legal fees to fight against the Tate lawsuits, which he feared were an attempt to “financially drain us”.
“We’re obviously trying to get the case in general dismissed,” he said.
Andrew and Tristan Tate lose bid to sue Adelaide YouTuber, launch appeal
The Tate brothers, who are facing charges of rape and human trafficking in Romania and the United Kingdom, had argued in their defamation lawsuit that those charges were false.
When dismissing the case in December 2025, the judge found that several of the defendants did not live in Florida and the court therefore did not have legal jurisdiction over them.
He found even if their social media posts were read by someone in Florida, it did not automatically mean the court had jurisdiction over them.
In their renewed claim, the Tate brothers said they have lived in Romania since about 2015 and described themselves as “entrepreneurs, social-media figures, and businessmen” while their “earning capacity depends materially on their reputations as businessmen and influencers”.
They claim their business opportunities were “damaged when defendants publicly branded them as rapists, traffickers, groomers, paedophiles, scammers, and operators of a criminal enterprise”.
Andrew Tate has described himself as a misogynist. (AP: Vadim Ghirda)
They allege the online posts were “placed on the Web and the internet which are accessible in Florida”, constituting an “‘electronic communication into Florida’ as it was accessed, and thus ‘published’ in Florida”.
In the case against X, the Tate brothers allege the anonymous “Doe Defendants continue to intentionally and recklessly accuse Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate of heinous crimes, including rape and human trafficking, as well as having sexually transmitted diseases”.
One of the anonymous defendants, referred to as “Jack Doe” in the documents and known as @CrayonMurders on social media, told the ABC he was introduced to the Tate brothers after his son “repeated a misogynistic statement at dinner one night”.
“There was an immediate course correction with my son, but it also prompted me to look into what else could be influencing young men at that time,” he said.
“It didn’t take many swipes on social media to land back on Tate.”
Andrew and Tristan Tate describe themselves as “major social media influencers”. (AP Photo: Vadim Ghirda)
He said those concerns were brought home when news of the Tate brothers arrests’ in Romania broke, and urged parents to find out if the Tate brothers were influencing their children.
“The fact that the person who was briefly influencing my son was arrested on those allegations hit like a tonne of bricks,” @CrayonMurders said.
He said the Tates’ defamation lawsuit was a bid to silence their critics.
X have has been granted an extension of time to respond to the lawsuit. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)
A lawyer for several of the defendants, Christopher B. Hopkins has lodged paperwork for a “protective order” in the matter involving X.
The documents state an order was “necessary to prevent irreparable harm and oppression, including the loss of anonymity” and further argues the Tates’s case still “lacks jurisdiction”.
“If the court lacks jurisdiction over the defamation case, it necessarily lacks jurisdiction over a separate lawsuit seeking to unmask defendants for the purpose of pursuing the defamation case,” Mr Hopkins said.
He said he was “expecting most, if not all, defendants to file motions to dismiss” the defamation case, as they had done before.
X applied to the court for an extension of time to May 11 to file a response to the bid to uncover the identities of the users on the platform, which has been granted.
The platform did not respond to a request for comment.