Johnny Bananas Says “The Challenge” Anonymous Fan Accounts Are 'the Real Culprits' of Starting Show Drama (Exclusive)

Seven-time 'Challenge' winner Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio tells PEOPLE that "social media's definitely changed the game" when it comes to the MTV competition

• As The Challenge heads into its 40th season, longtime competitor Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio tells PEOPLE how "social media's definitely changed the game"

• Aneesa Ferreira tells PEOPLE that when she first started competing in on The Challenge in 2002, "you did the show and you guys don't talk on the off-season"

• The Challenge: Battle of the Eras sees competitors from across the years break into eras and face off for their share of the $1 million prize

When The Challenge originated as Road Rules: All Stars in 1998, the competitors couldn’t have imagined a world where they stayed in touch with one another and shared their lives with fans year-round online.

Now, social media serves as almost another player in the game, presenting a platform for contestants to beef in the comments, call each other out in tweets and slide into each other’s DMs before the new season starts filming to form alliances.

“It's a year-round spectacle,” Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio tells PEOPLE in a joint interview with Aneesa Ferreira. “Didn't used to be. It used to be like, you do a show, you don't see each other for however many months, occasionally a Twitter beef would pop up here and there, people would talk it. Social media's definitely changed the game. But it makes it entertaining, gives the fans something to do in between [seasons].”

Related: Nurys Mateo Says The Challenge 40 'Changed Everything' for Her and Olivia: 'In a Great Place Now' (Exclusive)

Over the years, anonymous fan accounts have popped up to share all the receipts from any contestant quarrels that may play out on social media. And sometimes, these accounts add fuel to the fire. Devenanzio, 42, calls the fan accounts “the real culprits” behind a lot of the show’s tension.

“The only purpose they serve is to try and pit people against each other and stir the pot,” the seven-time Challenge winner says. “If somebody tweets something out and they post it on their page, then there's been more fights that have been started by these random tea accounts by fanning flames on stuff.”

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Ferreira, 42, tells PEOPLE that the social media element makes competing on The Challenge “a little bit trickier.”

“Before, you did the show and you guys don't talk on the off-season, really,” says Ferreira, who will be looking for her first win on The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras. “So if you hated somebody, the beef continued. There was no make-ups, there wasn't anything until you saw each other again. You have more access to people now.”

The boom in podcasts also gives contestants an additional platform to talk game — and smack —about other players outside of filming. Devenanzio, who will also compete on Battle of the Eras, and Ferreira both host podcasts that cover the show, with Ferreira co-hosting MTV’s official Challenge podcast with Tori Deal.

“As someone who hosts the official podcast, unfortunately and fortunately, it puts kind of a target [on you],” Ferreira says. “We have to talk about this in a very unbiased but still entertaining way. It's hard, because you think people are judging you and also the friendships that develop outside of the house, you go in the house, and then all of a sudden you guys aren't friends. It's very weird how that can happen.”

Devenanzio says he’s “run into the same problem” as Ferreira as the host of the Death, Taxes and Bananas podcast.

“I'll have somebody on and whoever the person is that’s my guest, they're going to have their opinions about another person,” the Real World: Key West alum says. “I try and stay as neutral as I can, but sometimes I can't. And then that turns into something that I got people pissed off at me. So it's like a double-edged sword.”

Related: The Challenge 40 Trailer: CT Exits on a Stretcher, Johnny 'Bananas' Calls Himself 'the Right Hand of the Devil'

At the end of the day, though, Devenanzio thinks the antics that unfold online between seasons only help fuel interest in The Challenge.

“People don't watch NASCAR to watch cars go around in a circle, they watch NASCAR to watch the crash. And it's the same reason people watch The Challenge,” he says. “People watch The Challenge for the fights and the flare-ups and the drama. People have their sides and they choose who they want to root for and who they want to root against. I think it's a good and a bad thing.”

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The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras premieres Wednesday, Aug. 14, at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.

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