The Project hosts Waleed Aly and Rachel Corbett debate Chrissy Teigen’s apology

Did Waleed go too far? Viewers have accused The Project host of “dominating” panellist Rachel Corbett during this heated argument.

The Project hosts Waleed Aly and Rachel Corbett got into a heated argument during Wednesday night’s episode while discussing Chrissy Teigen’s apology for her past cyber-bullying.

While Rachel put full blame on Teigen for her past actions trolling people on Twitter, Waleed instead argued that the culture of the platform encourages her and other users to make awful comments.

But the argument left viewers divided, with some insisting Aly was absolving those on social media of personal responsibility and behaving “pretty rudely” to his fellow panellist - while others asking why the TV star, who has never been active on social media, could dismiss entire platform so easily.

“I don’t believe in cancel culture. I don’t think we should cancel people for their bad behaviour because it doesn’t give any encouragement to learn, grow, change, whatever,” said Corbett after a package detailing Teigen’s social media scandal.

“But I can fundamentally say as a person, you make mistakes in the past but making death threats. That’s something above and beyond. Can you really change from the person who used to do that at one point? Do you change that much as a person?”

Aly added: “Let’s be honest, the line between death threats and bullying is shrinking and becoming fuzzier as a result of social media. That’s what the platform is. (Chrissy) was joining pile-ons.”

Waleed Aly fires up.

RELATED: Teigen slammed for ‘hollow’ apology

“But that doesn’t absolve of her of personal responsibility. You can’t say it’s a fault of the platform,” said Corbett.

Aly disagreed. “I can say that, and it’s not the same as absolving her from responsibility. But it absolutely is a result of the platform. If we’re going to pick out the people who do the wrong thing and attack them, well great, do that if you want, but you’re solving nothing.”

Corbett tried to interject but Aly repeatedly shut her down: “No, no, no, let’s be honest about this, he told her.”

“You cannot say it’s not your responsibility, how you behave and interact on that platform. That platform does not draw you in to behaviour that you have no responsibility for,” said a frustrated Corbett.

Rachel Corbett disagreed entirely with Waleed's viewpoint. Picture: Channel 10

RELATED: Shocking new Chrissy Teigen allegations

Aly said he disagreed with the second part of her statement. “It’s not that you can say it’s not your responsibility but the platform absolutely does drag people into that and we see that time and time and time again. I don’t know why we don’t just be honest about that. The problem is the machine. You’ve got to blow up this machine,” he said.

“No. No! You cannot take that responsibility away from people,” said Corbett.

“No, I’m not. Sorry, it’s the third time I have said it,” a visibly frustrated Aly added. “I’m not taking the responsibility away. But the two things are not mutually exclusive. Some platforms drive us into worse behaviours than other platforms, that’s just a fact.”

“That drives me nuts,” said Corbett. “As someone who would never behave (badly) on that platform, why am I trying to be a good person if I can just say, ‘Oh, well, the platform made me do it’.”

“No, I’m not saying the platform made me do it but I’m saying the platform creates that environment and encourages it,” said Aly. “I would love to know how many people are piling on to Chrissy Teigen and making death threats and I’d be surprised if the answer is zero.”

Project viewers weigh in: ‘Waleed’s agument is a cop out’

Viewers joined in the fierce debate online - and many sided with Corbett.

“Waleed is wrong, and Rachel is right. The platforms don’t change people, they simply allow people to more honestly express who they are, especially if they are anonymous. Also: Waleed spoke over Rachel a number of times pretty rudely,” wrote one viewer.

“I agree with Rachel - everyone is accountable for their own actions Waleed’s argument is a cop out,” wrote another.

Another commenter said “Waleed’s argument is like blaming Alexander Bell for getting a prank phone call.”

I’ve been on this platform for some years now Waleed & I’ve yet to suggest someone kill themselves, no matter how abusive someone was to me. It’s a poor workman who blames his tools,” wrote another viewer.

“Rachel’s right, & Waleed needs to check his dominant tone,” said another.

As far as I can see, Waleed has never been active on Twitter so he cannot opine authoritatively on it,” wrote another.

Chrissy Teigen’s social media scandal

Teigen, 35, returned to Instagram recently with a lengthy message to apologise for her past cyber-bullying of Courtney Stodden, among others.

The post is also available to read on Medium.

Chrissy Teigen released a lengthy apology. Picture: Getty Images

RELATED: Chrissy Teigen issues lengthy public apology

“Hi all. It has been a VERY humbling few weeks,” she began. “I know I’ve been quiet, and lord knows you don’t want to hear about me, but I want you to know I’ve been sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment, the ultimate ‘sit here and think about what you’ve done.’”

“Not a day, not a single moment has passed where I haven’t felt the crushing weight of regret for the things I’ve said in the past,” she continued. “As you know, a bunch of my old awful (awful, awful) tweets resurfaced. I’m truly ashamed of them.”

Stodden, 26, accused Teigen of telling them to kill themselves in private DMs after publicly tweeting that Stodden should “take ‘a dirt nap’.”

Teigen publicly apologised to Stodden in May, but Stodden claimed they never heard from her privately.