HATE ISLAND
Reality star’s online death threats by children and abuse from mums
A FORMER Love Island contestant has stopped reporting social media trolls because she feels there is ‘no point’ flagging their vile posts.
Amy Hart, who has more than a million Instagram followers, told MPs she faced horrific daily abuse from mothers, professionals – and even death threats from children.
But she said she was repeatedly told by the platform the messages ‘did not violate their policy rules’.
Miss Hart told the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee inquiry into influencer culture that firms were ‘not supportive enough when it comes to trolling’.
Asked why they were not doing enough to protect people, the 29year-old said: ‘If they banned everyone who was nasty, they would lose too many users’.
The ex British Airways stewardess, who appeared on the ITV dating show in 2019, said she had reported abusive messages to Instagram.
But the platform concluded they did not ‘break community guidelines’, she said, adding: ‘I am like, “Look at this barrage of messages someone has sent me before seven o’clock in the morning telling me how much they hate me, how awful I am, why everyone hates me, how ugly I am. From a fake account as well ... and you are telling me that doesn’t break policy?’
Miss Hart said abuse also came from nurses and ‘people with husbands and children’ seemingly unafraid to reveal their identities.
She said: ‘I think, do you go to dinner parties and tell your friends you’re trolling random women that you don’t know? Are you proud? I don’t understand it.’
A death threat from an account with a SpongeBob SquarePants profile picture was traced to a 13-yearold, she said.
‘I delete things, but you see those messages and actually I have probably stopped reporting them now because I know there is no point.’
The inquiry is running in tandem with a joint committee looking into the draft Online Safety Bill.
It will give Ofcom the power to punish social media companies that fail to remove ‘lawful but harmful’ content with fines of up to £18million or ten per cent of annual global
‘It’s a barrage of messages’
turnover. Miss Hart also dismissed the idea being an influencer was not a ‘proper job’, telling the inquiry: ‘I used to think it wasn’t either, and it really, really is’.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, said: ‘We understand how upsetting it is for Amy to receive hurtful comments and we don’t want this to happen on Instagram or Facebook.
‘We have strict guidelines against bullying and harassment and have introduced a number of safety tools. We’ll continue to work with partners – including ITV – and the wider industry to help protect people from abuse.’