Abbie Chatfield Has Praised ‘The Bachelor’ For Reportedly Tightening Social Media Rules

In a massive shakeup to what we’ve come to expect from The Bachelor contestants, it looks like this season there will be even more constraints on what the ladies post on social media.

On the latest episode of So Dramatic! Meghan Pustetto claimed that according to a production insider, the network has “gone to extreme lengths to gag the girls this season” by adding a social media amendment to their contracts. Pustetto alleged that Channel 10 will oversee the contestants Instagrams for two and a half months, with contestants put under a “social media freeze” with all posts vetted for approval.

“The amendment asked them to sign over all of their social media passwords to Warner Brothers and Channel Ten throughout the entire duration of the show,” Pustetto claimed. In return for agreeing to these conditions, So Dramatic! has even alleged that contestants will receive a $5k bonus and a blue tick.

Can I get a few thousand dollars if I give my social media over? If so, sign me TF up!

Some of these claims check out, as under all of the contestants bios now reads this identical statement:

Notably, one big change will be that comments will be reportedly turned off and DMs will only be open to people they follow. Abbie Chatfield has praised these changes, writing on a Pedestrian Instagram post: “This is genuinely the best thing for the contestants. It stops them seeing the trolling completely. I wish we had this in my season.”

Abbie received a barrage of hateful comments from trolls during the 2019 season (and long afterwards), which is something that could have been avoided to an extent under these new restrictions, as she wouldn’t be able to receive messages from people she didn’t follow — namely, faceless trolls sending her vile abuse.

In a now-deleted comment, Georgia Love replied to Abbie, writing, “We weren’t allowed any social media at all in my season (and prior) and I staunchly believe they should have kept it that way,” she posted.

“It’s not simply a TV show, it’s people’s lives and feelings and they’ve already agreed for it all to be on television, edited, and portrayed at the production company’s discretion. A TV show is a TV show, using the contestants’ public profile pages to tease episodes is wrong, in my view.”

The move follows years of contestants having to endure online abuse and threats, along with going rogue and revealing potential spoilers on social media. I’m surprised Channel 10 and Warner Bros. haven’t done this sooner tbh.

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The Bachelor premieres 21 July at 7:30pm on Channel 10.