Peacock addressed the growing “harassment” from Love Island USA fans in a statement added in the middle of an episode.
During the Tuesday, June 24, episode of reality dating series, there was a message halfway through that read, “The keyword in Love Island is … love. We love our fans. We love our islanders.”
The statement requested that viewers choose kindness. “We don’t love cyberbullying, harassment or hate,” the message concluded.
Love Island USA follows a group of singles who have to pair off in order to stay in the show’s luxury villa in Fiji. The contestants — who are referred to as Islanders — live in isolation in a villa and are under constant video surveillance. They must be coupled up to remain on the show and to stand a chance to receive the prize of $100,000.
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While the islanders are filming nonstop for weeks, viewers are watching daily episodes — and even get to cast votes that affect couples and the fate of the contestants. Season 7, however, has made headlines over fans getting too invested in the drama playing out on screen, which has resulted in invasive behavior such as contacting islanders’ loved ones off screen.
Some social media users have also been very vocal about not liking the outcome of certain eliminations after a group vote led to Jeremiah Brown and Hannah Fields being dumped from the villa.
Host Ariana Madix recently issued a message for those Love Island USA viewers who are taking things too far when expressing their frustrations.
“I do want to say something to some of those people who are online,” Ariana, 40, said during the Saturday, June 21, episode of Aftersun. “Don’t be contacting people’s families. Don’t be doxxing people.”
Ariana questioned behavior she saw on social media.
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“Don’t be going on islanders’ pages and saying rude things. You still have time to delete all of that because the islanders don’t have their phones,” Ariana noted. “So we are giving you a chance because this is a fun, amazing and beautiful show. We should be thanking each one of these islanders every single day for giving us themselves.”
Huda Mustafa has also faced backlash that she isn’t privy to since she’s still in the villa. Amid her tumultuous romance with Jeremiah, Huda’s ex Noah Sheline, with whom she shares 4-year-old daughter Arleigh, came to her defense earlier this month, writing via his Instagram Story, “At the end of the day I hope everyone remembers we’re human. 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.”
Noah urged Peacock viewers to not mock Huda.
“She’s maybe not doing a great job idk I don’t watch the show but I don’t like that I’m seeing so much negative s*** on my page or even clips of it about her,” he added about the “unhealthy” hate. “It’s not my job to police her or the people in my comments, but I will say what you guys do will affect her mental health and my daughter’s maybe in the future.”
New episodes of Love Island USA are released six days a week — except for Wednesdays — on Peacock.
