After 'Celebrity Big Brother' had its own issues with Rodrigo Alves using racist language in the house, there's another controversy brewing with the civilian version of 'Big Brother'.
'Big Brother' producers confirmed to Mirror.co.uk earlier today that an investigation is underway into housemate Ellis Hillon's since-deleted Twitter account, which is alleged to have had a number of racist tweets on it. The Twitter account was shut down just hours after Hillon entered the house and the tweets began to resurface, however Hillon's sister - who is managing a new account on behalf of her sister - insists the tweets are false.
There were no bad tweets!!! People just talk absolute rubbish and make fake things up. There will be no negativity here and my sister will shine. Good night!!!!
— Ellis Hillon (@HillonEllis) September 14, 2018
Producers confirmed that they are "currently investigating the authenticity of a number of historic social media posts," but stopped short of explaining what action would be taken if the posts were found to be true.
Racism has been an issue for 'Big Brother' for several years now, with Rodrigo Alves' outburst being only the latest. Tila Tequila was thrown off 'Celebrity Big Brother' in 2015 after photos of her in a Nazi uniform posing outside a concentration camp resurfaced. Tequila was also a prominent supporter of white nationalist Richard Spencer and eventually had her Twitter account suspended.
The controversy surrounding 'Celebrity Big Brother' this year has been particularly pointed, and many believe it's actively contributed to Channel 5 axing both 'Big Brother' and 'Celebrity Big Brother' after almost two decades on air.
As of writing, Hillon is still in the Big Brother house.