In a bid to avoid backlash from potential contestants' previous posts on social media that could include racist or discriminatory rhetoric, bosses of the show will be screening their online history. To do so, hopefuls of this year's series will be forced to divulge their passwords...
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Backlash in the past
As was the case with former controversial contestant, Danny Bibby, who appeared on Love Island in 2021, past online comments have resurfaced causing massive backlash for the show.
Fans were so outraged by Bibby's use of the n word on his Instagram account that a petition was started to have him removed from the show altogether. Even after he was given the chance to address the issue, effectively breaking a general rule that states that contestants are not allowed to have access to outside information while on the show, fans were not impressed. An inside source told The Sun:
They’ve been left embarrassed in the past so this new check will flag up any issues and ensure they don’t put any wrong’uns on national TV.
Read also:
⋙ Fans ask Love Island's new boy Danny Bibby to be removed from the show
⋙ Danny Bibby claims Love Island producers edited footage to make him look ‘psycho’
⋙ Love Island’s Danny Bibby says he’s an ‘alpha’ who’ll ‘say it how it is’
New measures being taken
Now, for the eighth series of the show, bosses will be taking a deep dive into prospective contestants' full online history by researching all of the comments and posts they have ever made. The show has reportedly hired a company called socialmediacheck.com which will be spending 24 hours investigating each contestants online history to look for any concerning posts. The website of the company in question explains:
Our machine learning tools look for swearing and profanity, adult images, hate speech and violent images, toxic language, negative sentiment.
