Among a number of personality traits that could use an improvement or two, it turns out Andrew Tate needs some lessons in geography.
Mark Zuckerberg‘s Meta was more than willing to provide those lessons Thursday in a filing in federal court over the ex-Big Brother UK contestant’s $50 million lawsuit. Far-right “king of toxic masculinity” Tate and his brother Tristan first filed their suit(s) in August against the social media giant and more over his 2022 deplatforming from Instagram and Facebook, as well as other social media outlets.
“The Court should transfer this case to the Northern District of California,” Meta’s Los Angeles- and D.C.-based Kirkland & Ellis wrote today to Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald of the Central District of California with an invisible smirk. “To be clear, Meta has no contract with plaintiffs, so plaintiffs have no claims against Meta,” the attorneys continued, noting thatMeta’s true corporate HQ (long tax story short) is actually in Ireland.
The multimillion-dollar claims by Tate and his brother Tristan allege that being kicked off Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok (who they are also suing for $50 million), YouTube and the then Twitter (who let the self-described braggadocious Tate back in late 2022) was “the culmination of a coordinated campaign to suppress, silence, and destroy the reputations and livelihoods of two controversial but law-abiding men.”
Claiming international victimhood, the pair are actually under charges and investigations from the U.S. to Europe. Last month, UK Crown Prosecution Service announced the rape and sexual violence claims of four women against Andrew Tate were DOA because our “legal test for prosecution was not met, and that no further action should be taken.” The UK prosecutors are still pursuing 10 charges, including rape and human trafficking, against Andrew Tate and 11 such charges against his brother from earlier this year. They are waiting on going deeper into the cases until 2022 rape and trafficking indictments against the siblings in Romania are resolved.
In that context, Meta’s Kirkland and Ellis team added, “But for the time being, Meta is the defendant in this suit. And although plaintiffs’ Complaint acknowledges that venue is proper where Meta is headquartered Menlo Park, California, plaintiffs nonetheless sued in Los Angeles County, apparently on the mistaken belief that Menlo Park is located here. Because of that mistake, and because litigating this case in the Northern District of California would serve the interests of litigation, convenience, and efficiency, the Court should transfer this case. Doing so would enable the speedy resolution of this dispute and would pose no prejudice to plaintiffs, who reside in Romania and who apparently selected this forum based on geographical error.”
The fact that the Tates’ L.A.-based lawyers at Brenneman APC, who are teamed with Miami’s Equity Legal PLLC, couldn’t figure out which Menlo Park the kinda well known Meta is situated would be funny if the case and the Tates weren’t so serious, with wider implications in today’s MAGA America.
To that, perhaps the real meat here is with Meta pitching that the Golden State move would bring little “hardship” to the Eastern European-set Tates, and would make things a little bit easier for potential Meta witness, this all belongs within the “exclusive jurisdiction of Irish courts” anyway. Plus, “Meta will move to dismiss this case at the appropriate time,” as it declares in today’s nine-page filing.
Until that time, Meta is seeking a January 12, 2026 hearing on the jurisdiction change.
It won’t be the only court date, Tate will be likely facing in the City of Angels.
Currently facing rape claims in Los Angeles Superior Court from ex-girlfriend Brianna Stern over an alleged March 10 assault at a Beverly Hills hotel, Tate went after the former model in mid-August with counterclaims and cries of a “smear campaign.” Loving to talk tough to his broverse, Tate moaned in his countersuit about losing “sponsorships, cancelled business deals and irreversible damage to his global reputation” due to Stern’s allegations.
Today, based primarily on First Amendment grounds, the Tony Buzbee-represented Stern moved to dismiss Tate’s countersuit. “Our focus is winning the case in California, which we intend to do,” the lawyer told Deadline today. “Today we moved to dismiss the counterclaim because it is completely meritless.”
On the Meta case, the Tates’ lawyers did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment on the company’s effort to move the case and seek a dismissal. Maybe they were busy buying some Rand McNally maps.
