Andrew Tate is being taken to court by a politician over social media posts

Northern Ireland MP Sorcha Eastwood has launched legal proceedings against influencer Andrew Tate and his brother, accusing them of harmful social media posts.

A lawyer for the Alliance Party MP said the posts were made on Friday, the day after she had told MPs that she was a "survivor of abuse" and had received rape threats.

Kevin Winters of KRW Law said: "We act on behalf of Sorcha Eastwood MP.

"We are instructed to issue legal proceedings against Andrew and Tristan Tate over their continued publication of social media postings on 10 January 2025.

"We can confirm service of correspondence on today’s date to their solicitors.

"In light of the sensitivities of the issues engaged, we have no further comment at this stage."

Eastwood told the House of Commons last week that a member of the public "came up and said they wanted to rape me” during a school visit she was leading at Stormont.

Northern Ireland MP Sorcha EastwoodPA

During the debate on violence against women and girls, Eastwood also raised concerns about incel culture, an online group who describe themselves as "involuntary celibates".

The Lagan Valley MP said: "I am a survivor of abuse myself. Northern Ireland is one of the most dangerous places in Europe to be a woman."

She added: "We previously did a lot of visits to the Northern Ireland Parliament building Stormont whenever I sat there in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and during one school visit a member of the public came up and said they wanted to rape me.

"And there were two people there and we just kind of were paralysed with the response, and that was not the right response. Not from me, but from the people around."

The posts that have caused Eastwood to launch the legal action were made on social media the day following the debate.

Andrew Tate has previously been banned from TikTok, YouTube and Facebook after the platforms accused him of posting hate speech and misogynistic comments, including that women should bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted.

But he remains popular on X, with almost 10 million followers, many of them young men.

Lawyers representing Andrew and Tristan Tate have been approached by PA for a response

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.