Online misogyny is leading to offline violence - this week’s headlines are further proof 

This article contains distressing details of physical and sexual violence

Kyle Clifford watched Andrew Tate videos before murdering Louise, Hannah and Carol Hunt - further proof that online misogyny can be linked to offline violence.

Kyle Clifford, 26, murdered three women on 9 July 2024 - his ex girlfriend Louise Hunt, 25, her sister Hannah Hunt, 28, and their mother Carol Hunt, 61.

Clifford pleaded guilty to the three murders in January 2025, and was found guilty this week of raping his former girlfriend before murdering her with a crossbow.

Following Thursday's verdict, new information was released to the court that Clifford had searched for Andrew Tate's podcast and watched up to 10 of his videos the day before executing his premeditated attack.

This information, the court heard, was only reported after Clifford's guilty verdict over concerns that it could be "prejudicial", with Tate considered "a poster boy for misogynists". Not to mention, the defence's belief that there was too vague of a link between the content watched by Clifford and his planned attack.

However, prosecutors at Cambridge Crown Court have argued that "the violent misogyny promoted by Tate is the same type of motivation" that "fuelled both the murders and the rape" by Clifford. And with a growing pattern between online misogyny and offline violence, women's rights activists have warned that its relevance cannot be understated.

Online misogyny is a growing threat in the UK, with a rise in misogynistic influencers like Tate glorifying physical and sexual violence. And with young men increasingly being radicalised, women and girls are being put in very real danger.

Women are now 27 times more likely to face online abuse than men, with 1 in 5 reporting to have experienced it in some form, from cyber flashing to violent threats. And with extremist hate speech against women linked to cases of offline violence, we are seeing the real-life repercussions of online misogyny.

Jake Davidson, who killed five people in an attack in Plymouth in August 2021 was reported to have strongly misogynistic views and a fascination with "violent heroes of 'incel' ideology."

The unnamed Toronto teenager who executed a machete terror attack against two women at a spa in 2020 was said to be "ideologically motivated" by violent gender-based cyber extremism.

And Alek Minassian who killed 10 people in a deadly attack in Toronto in 2018 told interrogators that he had been "radicalised" online, posting to Facebook minutes before the killings: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun!"

Tragically, the murders of Louise, Hannah and Carol Hunt appear to follow in this distressing pattern. And while Clifford is fully accountable, women's rights activists have stressed the importance of looking also at the wider culture of online misogyny that inspired it.

"The harmful content that people see online can absolutely transform and transfer to physical, offline harm," explained Baroness Morgan on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, following Clifford's trial.

"Hearing that Kyle Clifford watched videos of Andrew Tate in the lead up to his murders of his ex-girlfriend, her mother and sister, is deeply upsetting to us, but sadly not surprising," four alleged victims of Tate added via their legal representatives. "This should be a wake up call for all the social media companies who are continuing to platform Tate and his dangerous messages... Clifford's case should be a warning".

"How many more women have to die before we start recognising this for what it is?," posted feminist activist and writer Laura Bates to social media. "And this isn’t just about Tate. It is about an entire online ecosystem radicalising young men into hatred of women and actively inciting them to commit acts of mass violence against them.

"This isn’t going to stop or go away," she later continued. "It’s only going to get worse, unless we start to treat it as the terrorism it is ... At what point do we start to care more about women’s lives being decimated than about not wanting to offend men, or stand up to the tech companies making billions from pumping their toxic, hate fuelled content out to millions of teenage boys?"

Kyle Clifford will be sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday.

If you are experiencing domestic abuse or are worried about someone you know, contact the free 24-hour National Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247. If you are in an emergency situation, please call 999.