A Bachelorette star is reportedly being investigated by her employer Channel 7 after a “problematic” post was reshared online.
Georgia Love has found herself in hot water again after an eight-year-old Instagram post joking about an animal hospital being next to a Chinese restaurant was reposted online.
It comes afterThe Bachelorette star was criticised over an Instagram Story she shared on Monday in which she filmed a cat inside an Asian restaurant with the caption “shop attendant or lunch?!”.
While Love deleted and apologised for the video, her response was rejected by many who viewed it as not addressing the “casual racism” it showed towards Asians.
Love’s employer Channel 7 is reportedly investigating her post and “taking the matter seriously”, a source told The Daily Telegraph.
Now Instagram account @aussieinfluenceropinions, which called out Love on Monday for her video, has shared a post the journalist posted to Instagram in 2013.
The post shows an animal hospital next door to a restaurant called China Chef. Underneath the photo is a cartoon image of a dog with eyes narrowed, saying: “That’s suspicious.”
According to @aussieinfluenceropinions, which frequently calls out influencer behaviour online, Love deleted the post “roughly 5 minutes after I shared to my story”.
News.com.au has contacted Love for comment.
Love’s post was condemned in the comments of @aussieinfluenceropinions’ post, where people labelled it “problematic and hypocritical”.
“There’s know way you can say that either of these are ‘innocent’ jokes. Totally f***ing knew what she was doing,” one person said.
“Surely we call this racism. Nothing casual about it,” another commented.
“Disgraceful,” one wrote.
Vietnamese-Australian woman and anti-Asian hate campaigner Alyssa Ho has also called on Love to address the situation publicly with an apology to the Asian community in Australia.
Ms Ho previously labelled Love’s restaurant video on Monday “reckless” and said the joke “makes me sick”.
‘I sincerely apologise’: Georgia Love
After deleting Monday’s Instagram Story, Love issued an apology, writing on her story that she had “meant for this to be a joke about an animal being in a restaurant at lunch service time”.
“I meant absolutely no insinuation about the type of animal nor the type of restaurant, but I see that my post did not come across like that and was offensive,” she wrote.
“I sincerely apologise for the oversight and offence I have caused.”
Love also said thank you to “those who called me out” as it was “what we need to make sure we are all accountable and do better”.
But her apology divided many – while some argued her video had been a “joke” gone wrong, others said Love’s response didn’t address that the reality star had been “very clearly insinuating that the cat is going to be eaten at an Asian restaurant”.
Back in July, Love faced criticism for a tweet she made about controversial MAFS couple Bryce and Mel’s pregnancy.
The Melbourne-based influencer also copped a backlash for tweeting about her wedding cancellation last year to Lee Elliott, who she met on The Bachelorette in 2016.
The couple have since tied the knot in a Tasmanian ceremony.