The Instagram and Twitter profile of 2DAYFM radio hosts Rove McManus and Sam Frost have removed a GIF which compared ex-The Bachelor contestant Eliza St John to Caitlyn Jenner.
The animated image, which has now been deleted, showed Eliza’s face slowly morphing into that of transgender reality star Jenner. The caption on Instagram read: “Sorry Eliza. Once it’s been seen, it can’t be unseen.”
A spokeswoman for SCA told B&T: “The social media tile was posted in reference to a Daily Telegraph story published online saying that Eliza was ‘cool’ with a comparison made between herself and Caitlyn Jenner. It was later removed, as we monitored some nasty and bully like comments about it. We have a very strong stance against bullying at SCA and believed it was best to have it pulled down immediately.”
Sam Frost has previously opened up on her HitFM brekkie show addressing a worrying tweet about the impact of online trolls, with a concerning admission she “didn’t want to be here anymore”. When the incident happened Southern Cross Austereo said it has strict policies in place to ensure all content placed upon the brand’s assets is monitored rigorously for bullying and trolling.
“We recognise that our on-air talent are in the public eye and therefore may be subject to unwanted and unpleasant attention from time to time,” a spokesperson said.
“As part of SCA’s Social Media Policy, we take the management of our social media assets very seriously. This includes how our talent are represented and treated in an online environment.
“All content we place on our social media is moderated rigorously to ensure bullying behaviour, racist comments and/or defamatory comments are not part of the conversation, whether relating directly to our talent or our wider brand communities.
“While we don’t manage our talent’s social media profiles, we do ensure we are monitoring how they are engaged with on their relevant platforms.”
