Married At First Sight’s Dean Wells has criticised dating app Bumble’s decision to ban body-shaming language on its platform.
The creative director, 43, slammed the company’s move and argued it was somehow an attack on free speech.
‘Yet another example of our freedoms being taken away one by one,’ he wrote on Instagram next a screenshot of an online news article about Bumble’s ruling.
Outspoken: Dean Wells has come out defending his controversial comments about Bumble’s decision to ban body shaming on their dating app
He added: ‘Little by little our right to say, think and do whatever we want is being eroded.’
Returning to Instagram Stories a few hours later, Dean said he had received ‘tons of messages’ about his post and insisted ‘people are really taking it the wrong way’.
‘Of course I don’t condone fat-shaming, body-shaming, name-calling, all that kind of stuff…’ he began his lengthy rant.
Not a fan: Sharing a screenshot of a news story about the platform on Instagram Stories on Thursday, the 43-year-old former Married At First Sight star slammed the changes
‘Aaand yet another example of our freedoms being taken away one by one,’ he captioned the post
‘However, we’ve just had movies, TV shows censored. People kicked off Twitter, people kicked off all kinds of platforms, just for saying the wrong thing.
‘You can’t have free speech but then decide which things people are allowed to be free to speak about.
‘Like, you have to have free speech for all and for everything, and just suck it up. It’s just words. Yeah, it sucks, but just block the person, kick them off.’
Explaining himself: Returning to Instagram Stories a few hours later, Dean said he had received ‘tons of messages’ about his post and claimed ‘people are really taking it the wrong way’
Dean, who has been trolled himself in the past, argued that ‘there’s already too many restrictions on what we can and can’t say and can and can’t do’ and that censorship ‘is getting ridiculous’.
He then shared an example of some of the name-calling he’d received because of his comments on the Bumble story, adding: ‘You do realise that I’m defending your right to be able to say dumb s**t like that?’
‘This is not China. This is a free country, you should be able to say whatever the hell you want. I can take it…’ he continued.
‘Of course I don’t condone fat shaming, body shaming, name calling, all that kind of stuff…’ he began in a lengthy rant across a series of video posts
‘These all seem like minor, little things. It’s a movie here, it’s cheese there, and again, I’m not defending any of these things, everyone has a right to say and do whatever they want, but you need to realise, our freedoms are slowly but surely being taken away.’
Dean said he’d been on the receiving end of ‘hundreds’ of hateful comments lately, and advised others to ‘just suck it up’.
‘They [trolls] are just sad little pathetic humans that are a bit too obsessed with a silly reality TV show. Let them get it off their chest,’ he said.
‘You can’t have free speech but then decide which things people are allowed to be free to speak about,’ he argued
‘Banning them or fining them is not going to change those people from having those feelings. They’re still going to have those feelings, and they’re going to manifest in some other way.
‘I say, let people say whatever they want, and anyone that gets offended needs to just suck it up, and realise that’s just part of living in a free society. I stand by that 100 per cent.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Dean Wells for further comment.
Speaking out: Dean argued that ‘there’s already too many restrictions on what we can and can’t say and can and can’t do’ and said ‘it’s getting ridiculous’
On Thursday, Bumble announced it was banning body-shaming on its platform.
‘Bumble’s mission has always been to build a platform rooted in respect and kindness, and we’re taking another step to make our app safer for our community,’ a spokesperson said.
‘People who use body-shaming language in their profile or through the Bumble app’s chat function will receive a warning for their inappropriate behavior, and repeated incidents or particularly harmful comments will result in being banned from the platform.’
‘Everyone has a right to say and do whatever they want, but you need to realise, our freedoms are slowly but surely being taken away,’ he claimed