Love Island condemns ‘trolling’ as ‘horrible’ tweets attack Tasha’s deafness

ITV2 dating show Love Island has condemned the online “trolling” of this year’s contestants, after friends of deaf cast member Tasha Ghouri said negative tweets about the model and dancer have been “horrible to read”.

Tasha has continued to face online criticism following her coupling up with Andrew Le Page, a 27-year-old real estate agent from Guernsey.

Posts seen by The Limping Chicken include individuals threatening to damage Tasha’s cochlear implant, accusing the content creator of “faking being deaf” and saying it would be “perfect” if Andrew “just pulls out her hearing aids and slide tackles her into the pool until she drowns”.

In an Instagram Q&A on Sunday, one follower asked Tasha’s friends managing her account how they were “coping with the negative tweets”.

Their response in an Instagram story read: “It’s horrible to read, especially when it’s unnecessarily personal, but we have our gal’s back 100%.

“Also people are entitled to their own opinion so [shrugging emoji].”

It comes just over a week after the Instagram page shared a post calling on viewers to “avoid making fun of her superpower” – a term Tasha has used to refer to her deafness.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tasha Amber Ghouri (@tashaghouri)

Speaking to The Limping Chicken on Monday, a source close to the show said the Love Island team “condemn any trolling messages directed at any Islander”.

When asked what support producers were offering Tasha during her time in the villa and after the show, they directed this website to a press release published in May, which confirmed the programme’s “duty of care protocols” for this year’s contestants.

Support offered to Islanders this year includes “bespoke training on dealing with social media”, “a minimum of eight therapy sessions” and “proactive contact” with the team for 14 months after the series has ended.

Contestants also received training around “inclusive language around disability” from specialist Shani Dhanda prior to entering the villa.

Photo: ITV.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.