Murad Merali: who is YouTuber known for Love Island content - what did he say about fetish video allegations?

YouTuber Murad Merali has apologised to his fans after alleged videos showing him taking part in feet fetish and ‘raceplay’ explicit videos were leaked and sparked outrage.

Known to Love Island fans for his explosive post-villa interviews with former contestants, Murad has now found himself at the centre of the drama, as he was called out on social media by fans after he claimed he coined a popular phrase related to the ITV reality dating show.

Now allegations of ‘raceplay’ and fetish videos have reportedly been uncovered by Love Island fans.

Here’s everything you need to know about the situation.

Who is Murad Merali?

Murad Merali is a 26-year-old popular YouTuber and podcaster.

His eponymous YouTube channel boasts almost 300,000 subscribers and more than 130million video views.

Murad grew to popularity with his interviews with recently dumped Love Island contestants, with his most popular video on his channel including interviews with series eight contestants Summer, Dehi, Coco and Josh.

He is also known for hosting Love Island-themed events, including final parties.

What led to Murad Merali allegations?

Murad caused outrage on social media after he claimed that he coined the term ‘Love Island bay-bee’.

Love Island staff attributed the quote to Liam Llewellyn, who had used this phrase upon voluntarily leaving the villa in the first week of series eight.

Murad’s insistance that he had created the phrase led to one Love Island fan making a series of allegations against the podcaster.

What has Murad Merali been accused of?

One Twitter user took to the social media site to post screengrabs of Murad’s alleged online fetish account ‘arabmasterboy’.

The screengrabs showed a host of NSFW incidents, including alleged ‘raceplay’ and extreme sexual foot fetish videos.

What is raceplay?

Raceplay is a form of sexual fetish in which consenting participants act out racially-charged situations.

This may include using slurs and/or acting out roleplay situations such as interracial slave-master and slave situations.

Murad was alleged to be seen in videos and screenshots partaking in this practice, with written captions using slurs against Chinese people and black people appearing to be posted from an ‘arabmasterboy’ account.

What did Murad Merali say about the allegations?

After trending on Twitter and finding himself in the middle of a social media storm, Murad took to his YouTube channel to address the situation.

While he took admitted to taking part in some of the fetish videos, he has adamantly refuted claims that he had written racial slurs in the captions posted.

He said: “First and foremost the written content is not me, the severely derogatory comments are not written by me and I will stand by that – this is not who I am.

“Some of this content is also not me and I can profusely apologise, I take full accountability for how this has come across and how everybody has felt from this content. Some of this content is me, not now, not recently, in the last five to six years, not any moment now.”

He added: “These screenshots associated with this vile, racist verbiage that has been used is not written by me. This has not been done by me in any capacity and this needs to be made abundently clear with full force.

“People make their own captions and mix it with their own pictures for their own satisfaction, their own desires or their own fantasies.”

What has been the reaction?

Following the outrage, Murad found himself dropped by his online sponsor Frontline Therapist.

In a statement, the company said: “My company Frontline Therapist has recently been promoted by Mr Murad Merali on his YouTube channel and his social media platforms.

“He was part of a paid promotional campaign to build our brand, hence our dealings were purely business related. As the founder of Frontline Therapist, I take full responsibilityfor the promotion.

“Allegations have recently come to light about Mr Murad Merali’s past conduct and behaviour. I was totally unaware of this, and I personally find the allegations distrubing.”

The company’s founder, known as Esther, went on to explain that the company would not have worked with Murad had they known about the allegations,. and are in the process of removing any paid promotional content made with the YouTube removed from social media.

The statement added: “Frontline Therapist will not be working with Mr Murad Merali in the future.”

Having created Love Island content for the past few years, Murad has become close friends with ex-contestants, including 2019 winner Amber Gill.

Amber has since unfollowed the podcaster on Twitter and Instagram.