Naz blasts 'The Block' after serious bullying claims

A Kiwi TV star and victim of social media trolling has spoken out in support of The Block twins after this week's bullying incident.

Ali and Julia were sent home from The Block NZ to recover from an onslaught of social media abuse posted to the show's Facebook page.

That's something The Bachelor NZ star Naz Khanjani says "actually disgusts me".

Khanjani, who rose to fame as a contestant on season two of The Bachelor, claims MediaWorks failed to help her during the fallout from the show. She believes the network should have stepped in sooner with the twins.

The pair were told to take the rest of the week off by host Mark Richardson in Wednesday night's show and "get completely away from this environment".

The pair have been actively portrayed as the villains this season and are regular targets of online abuse.

MediaWorks said in a statement they have "a duty of care responsibility to our contestants across all Three reality shows" and they "decided that it was necessary for [twins Ali and Julia] to have some time off" to recover from the social media onslaught.

The network added: "The Block NZ and associated Facebook pages are moderated and comments that are abusive, offensive or aggressive are removed".

But Khanjani believes that's not good enough.

"They should be doing it from the start, not letting it get to the point where the girls can't function anymore. Because it does take its toll, really badly. People don't understand how bad it gets," she told the Herald.

"The suicide rate in New Zealand is just huge, and a lot of it's coming from social media and people just don't realise. It actually disgusts me."

Other than the counselling offered to contestants, Khanjani claims MediaWorks gave her no assistance during The Bachelor, despite being portrayed as the show's "villain".

She believes she "went through quite a different experience and got quite a lot of hate".

"Not once did they [moderate the comments] - everything that was hateful and bad towards me was just left on there. There was a lot, and I just had to do it all myself".

A Mediaworks spokesperson said while they moderate their own pages closely, they "cannot control what takes place on social media outside of our own platforms".

They said "participant wellbeing is an absolute priority" and they offer "a high level" of support during participants' time on the show, including access to a psychologist, and "where necessary, insist they come out of the situation as we did with Julia and Ali".

But Khanjani has been subject to bullying and social media trolling even after her appearance on the show and it has plagued her through other ventures in bodybuilding, modelling, and a charity boxing match.

While she says she has a thick skin, the hate "does take a toll" and at her lowest point, she struggled with depression.

"Earlier this year I went through a really bad phase ... we're only human at the end of the day and it's just not nice, [people] shouldn't be doing this," she says.

Her advice to The Block twins was to ignore the haters and rise above it - but she admitted that was easier said than done.

"They've got to realise that these people are people that they've never met, their opinions shouldn't matter. So my best advice would be to just put their phone aside for the rest of the competition and not read it," she says.

"I've grown a lot from it and that's what these girls can do too; just grow from it and become stronger people and try to turn this whole thing into a positive learning curve.

"They're the ones on the TV show, they should be having fun."

WHERE TO GET HELP

If you are worried about your or someone else's mental health, the best place to get help is your GP or local mental health provider. However, if you or someone else is in danger or endangering others, call 111.

If you need to talk to someone, the following free helplines operate 24/7:

DEPRESSION HELPLINE: 0800 111 757
LIFELINE: 0800 543 354
1737 NEED TO TALK? Call or text 1737
SAMARITANS: 0800 726 666
YOUTHLINE: 0800 376 633 or text 234