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Love Island’s Amy Hart gives up on reporting shocking abuse as she criticises social media platforms: ‘There is no point’

Amy doesn’t believe social media platforms are doing enough to tackle abuse (Picture: PA)

Love Island star Amy Hart has shared she no longer reports the shocking abuse she receives on social media due to the lack of action.

The reality star and former flight attendant appeared in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee today and detailed her experience on social media to an inquiry into influencer culture.

Sharing the trolling she’s received since her time on the ITV2 show in 2019, Amy (who has 1.1million Instagram followers) said Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were not supportive enough when it came to trolling.

The 29-year-old recounted the abuse she regularly receives online and said she was surprised many of the private messages sent to her did not breach the sites’ community guidelines.

Amy told the inquiry: ‘I am desensitised but I would say that the (social media) networks are not supportive enough when it comes to trolling.

‘I have reported some messages before and they come back saying, “We have looked at it and it doesn’t break community guidelines” and I am like, “Look at that message!”

The reality star has shared the abuse she’s been faced with since leaving Love Island (Picture: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock)

‘Look at this barrage of messages someone has sent me before 7 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, a trolling account, a burner account, and you are telling me that doesn’t break policy?’

Amy said she was getting trolled by people who said they are nurses and ‘people that have got husbands and children’ and one death threat had been traced back to a 13-year-old.

She added: ‘I delete things, but you see those messages and actually I have probably stopped reporting them now because I know there is no point.

‘Because the time it takes me the process of doing: “Why are you reporting this message?” and then it comes back a few hours later with a notification that says, “We have checked it and it doesn’t break community guidelines”.’

The star also dismissed the idea being an influencer was not a legitimate profession, telling the inquiry: ‘I used to think it wasn’t a proper job either and it really, really is.’

She said she would be willing to pay to use the social media networks ‘in exchange for a fairer algorithm’, suggesting posts tagged as advertisements were seen by less followers.

Amy also called for a standardised pricing structure based on how many followers an influencer has and their engagement that would dictate their work with brands.

She appeared alongside Nicole Ocran, a blogger and co-founder of The Creator Union, which advocates for digital creators.

More: Love Island

Nicole told the inquiry her union had reached out to social media networks including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram but had only received a response from image sharing site Pinterest.

Speaking about trolling, she said: ‘From our perspective the platforms do not move fast enough – they don’t move at all.’

On Twitter, users may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so, and the site can limit the ability to post or suspend an account temporarily or permanently.

Instagram and Facebook have also both set out rules on ‘violating messages’ which can be enforced through messaging restrictions and disabling accounts.

Metro.co.uk contacted reps of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for comment.


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