With a new season of ‘Big Brother VIP Kosova’ around the corner, calls are growing for greater moderation of violent, hate-filled content and better media literacy.
Eighteen-year-old Dea Hamiti has watched all three seasons of the Kosovo edition of Big Brother VIP. So have all her friends.
“Even though there are insults, shouting and swearing, we’re constantly watching it,” said Hamiti.
Season 4 of Big Brother VIP is in the works, likely starting in the autumn on Klan Kosova TV, a popular private broadcaster.
But not everyone is as enthusiastic as Hamiti.
Indeed, civil society groups and Kosovo authorities have accused the show of giving a platform to hate speech, abuse and gender-based violence.
The third installment, late last year, triggered outrage when the ex-husband of contestant Drenusha Latifi, a singer and model, was brought into the house despite an outstanding domestic abuse charge against him based on a complaint by Latifi.
Activists said the show normalised abuse.
The former husband, Attila Kardesh, has denied domestic abuse, but his appearance earned Klan Kosova a 30,000-euro fine from the Independent Media Commission, IMC, the industry regulator, which found he had used offensive language about Roma.
Kardesh told BIRN that “far worse” vocabulary had gone unpunished. Invariably, however, it’s the most controversial moments that then go viral on social media.
“Social media algorithms favour content that generates strong emotions such as anger or hatred because this increases interactions [comments, shares, clicks],” said social media expert Benjamin Kolenovic.
“The algorithm amplifies polarisation by causing the parties to clash even more online.”
Psychologist Rron Kastrati said the risk to children is real.
“Such content on social networks influences individuals to become more aggressive, increases anxiety levels and lowers self-esteem,” he told BIRN. “In young people, such formats lead them to forms of bullying behaviour.”
Bullying, violence
The Kosovo edition of the international ‘Big Brother’ reality-TV format claims to have garnered some 4.4 billion views on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Violent and offensive content is hard to miss, even for those who don’t watch the show on TV.
Of 70 respondents to an online questionnaire, 60 reported experiencing anxiety and psychological distress when viewing violent or offensive scenes from the show.
And it’s not just Big Brother.
‘It’s My Home’, aired on First Channel, uses a similar format, with contestants living together inside a house for more than three months; it too has drawn criticism.
In 2022, one contestant threw a slipper at another, causing her to cry and prompting the police to intervene; in another case, a contestant was bullied over his weight. The IMC temporarily suspended the television broadcast of ‘It’s My Home’.
Nevertheless, just one episode drew some 636,000 views on YouTube in a single day, the media outlet Nacionale reported.
The IMC told BIRN it had obliged First Channel to require a pin code for viewers to access the channel during daytime hours when children might be watching TV.
“The IMC is committed to taking concrete technical measures to protect young age groups by obliging media service providers to set a pin code from 05:00 to 24:00 when broadcasting such content,” the commission told BIRN. It also fined First Channel 5,000 euros in April 2024 for violating the Code of Ethics and the Regulation on the Protection of Children and Minors.
First Channel founder Valon Maloku said the broadcaster had ceased production of It’s My Home, citing “interference from certain circles”, “bans and financial penalties”.
Klan Kosova did not respond to a request for comment and has yet to comment publicly on the IMC’s decisions concerning ‘Big Brother VIP Kosova’.
Media literacy
Experts say social media platforms have a moral obligation to filter out offensive and violent content.
“Social platforms should strengthen active content moderation by using artificial intelligence to identify and limit posts with hate speech as soon as they are published,” said Kolenovic.
In the absence of any significant progress, however, others say the general level of media literacy must be raised.
“Emotional education, promotion of emotional intelligence and training for managing emotions are necessary strategies”, said Kastrati, the psychologist.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights said victims of hate speech should be able to access “clear legal mechanisms to report cases and seek justice”.
“Police and judicial authorities should receive training to properly recognise and address online hate speech,” the NGO told BIRN.
Remzie Shahini-Hoxhaj, professor and vice dean for projects at the Department of Journalism at the University of Pristina, said that while the IMC’s measures may have helped calm certain situations, they had not led to greater awareness.
“I don’t know if the people who participate sign any agreement with the production company, but it would be good to have a preliminary agreement signed by all participants, so that the rules of the game are not broken,” said Shahini-Hoxhaj.
“People who become part of this game have a public responsibility, especially when these debates are also followed on social networks, where our ability to monitor them is very limited.”
Hamiti, the 18-year-old ‘Big Brother’ viewer, said she believes most young people are negatively affected by such shows, “as they watch and imitate the behaviour of the ‘Big Brother VIP Kosova’ contestants, the offensive language and all other negative aspects of the show”.
“And the worst part is that they normalise it.”