Love Island USA tells viewers to stop harassing contestants: 'Remember they're real people'
Warning comes as viewers have increasingly criticized the reality show's cast members online
Where's the love?
Love Island USA — currently in its seventh season and the most-watched streaming reality show in the U.S. — has issued a rare and serious warning to its many fans that harassing its contestants will not be tolerated.
This comes as viewers have increasingly criticized the show's cast members online. The attacks amped up after a recent round of eliminations and the introduction of some new cast members.
The show's host, Ariana Madix, even warned viewers during one recent aftershow: "Don't be contacting people's families. Don't be doxing people. Don't be going on islanders' pages and saying rude things."
During Tuesday's episode, Peacock broadcast a message that read: "The keyword in Love Island is… Love. We love our fans. We love our Islanders. We don't love cyberbullying, harassment or hate."
Around the same time, the show made a similar reminder in a post on X and Instagram.
"We appreciate the fans, the passion for the series, and the amazing group of Islanders who are sharing their summer with us," they wrote. "Please just remember they're real people — so let's be kind and spread the love!"
CBC News has reached out for comment to NBC, which runs the Peacock streaming platform, but hasn't heard back.
'Still a human'
On Love Island USA, a group of single men and women move into a remote villa with the goal of finding love. The contestants couple up based on first impressions. Those relationships are tested. Do they have lasting chemistry? They also have the option of exploring connections with other people, including a stream of new singles who arrive throughout.
At different points, viewers are invited to vote for their favourite couples. Contestants are eliminated throughout the show, and in the end, the public votes for the winning couple, who get a cash prize if they both choose to stay together.
The show's seventh season debuted June 3 and average viewership has quadrupled since, according to a NBC Universal press release. But the show's popularity also extends beyond the screen — NBC says Love Island USA generated some 54 million social media interactions across platforms between June 2 and June 19 alone.
And a lot of it is negative.
Noah Sheline, who has a daughter with contestant Huda Mustafa, has spoken out on social media about the backlash against his ex, for instance. Last week, Sheline posted on TikTok pleading with people to be nice, for both Mustafa's sake and for their daughter's, according to People.
"Her going on that show to find love, or whatever you think it was she's doing, remember she's still human, she has a daughter, and a life," he wrote.
"It's crazy I have to involve myself in this but I don't want my daughter's mom to get out and see this and her mental health goes down a hill." (The cast doesn't have access to social media while they're filming the show.)
Jewish Canadian contestant labelled a 'threat'
One of the Love Island franchise staples is a twist called Casa Amor, where the couples are split into separate villas to spend time with new (sexy) singles.
And this year, one of those singles is Elan Bibas, who grew up in Richmond Hill, Ont., and attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.
Bibas, who is Jewish and has posted online about visiting Israel, has reportedly been called a "threat" by viewers online because of his background.
Some posts on social media have accused him of being an IDF soldier (there is no evidence he has ever been one), or have expressed worry that a Palestinian castmate is in danger.
People online got especially fired up when Bibas and Mustafa, who is of Palestinian descent, kissed on the show earlier this week. People have posted that they're disgusted and want to vomit, and have left comments on Bibas's Instagram posts accusing him of murder, calling him a serial killer, and saying they refuse to watch the show until he's gone.
The backlash was so bad that the Anti-Defamation League chimed in Wednesday about the idea of him being a threat.
"It's blatantly antisemitic to label a Jewish man who has visited Israel as 'dangerous,'" the New York-based NGO posted on TikTok.
"Attacks on Elan and efforts to villainize him are hateful and baseless."
Online harassment an ongoing problem
Love Island certainly isn't the only franchise with an online harassment problem.
Stars of The Bachelor have previously spoken out about the hate they get online. In 2020, during a "Women Tell All" special, bachelorette Rachel Lindsay led a segment on online harassment. Lindsay was the show's first Black bachelorette.
"I feel like you guys hear us talk about the hate that we receive, but you have no idea what it is," Lindsay said. "The only way I can actually make you feel it is for you to see it, so I want to start out by reading some of these messages that these women have received."
She then read a series of messages encouraging the women on the show to kill themselves, calling them names, and threatening to harm them.
And last year, fans of the Netflix stalking drama Baby Reindeer were so determined to identify the show's characters that the show's creator made a public plea for people to stop the sleuthing. But it didn't work, and after armchair detectives identified the so-called stalker as Fiona Harvey, she sued Netflix.
She said she was tormented online.
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