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Harry and Meghan quit Twitter and Facebook
President Trump has been ejected from multiple online platforms after inciting the Capitol MAGA riot, resulting in the deaths of five people.
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In contrast, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are removing themselves from social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, disillusioned by the “hate” they encounter there, according to a report in the U.K. Sunday Times.
They may have 10 million Instagram followers—and arguably inspired the rest of the royals into creating more creative social media content—but a source close to the couple told the Sunday Times they have “no plans” to use social media for their new Archewell Foundation and were “very unlikely” to return to social media in a personal capacity.
That “very unlikely” at least leaves some doors open in case they decide they want to return to the wild west of the internet ever again to market themselves or their various pursuits.
For now, the Sunday Times reports that the Sussexes will promote themselves instead via “online video and television appearances, through selected publications and via their Archewell website.” This will be supplemented by “more frequent public appearances when the coronavirus pandemic eases.”
The decision seems intensely personal. The various controversies swirling around the couple are rarely to do with their social media content, but rather what they say and how and where they say it. The royal family is said to be uncomfortable with their multimillion-dollar deals with Spotify and Netflix, both highlighted on the Archewell website.
The couple have made their feelings about the online universe extremely clear. Speaking to the Teenage Therapy podcast last year, both Meghan and Harry talked of the potential damage to one’s mental health presented by the world online, using themselves as examples of victims of its worst excesses.
“I am told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the entire world, male or female,” Meghan said. “Now, eight months of that I wasn’t even visible on maternity leave or with a baby. But what was able to be manufactured and churned out—it’s almost unsurvivable. That’s so big you can’t even think of what that feels like… people saying things about you that aren’t true, what that does to your mental and emotional health is so damaging.”
Meghan acknowledged that her and Harry’s experiences “may seem different to what people experience day-to-day, but… we all know what it feels like to have our feelings hurt. We all know what it feels like to be isolated and othered.”
Harry said, “There are good days and bad days,” adding that “self-care as a priority is hugely important. Showing vulnerability is a strength.”
As the first non-white woman to marry a senior member of Britain’s royal family, Meghan has been subjected to appalling levels of racist abuse and trolling on social media.
Indeed, in the biography Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, it was revealed that Meghan had been called the n-word or a “mutt” on her social media accounts.
Scobie and Durand revealed why Harry felt moved to issue an unprecedented statement in November 2016 in which he confirmed their relationship, while condemning “the racial undertones of comment pieces… and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.” Harry also revealed that he was worried about Meghan’s safety and “deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her.”
“For the prince, Meghan was his personal introduction to the ugliness of racism. While it might have been new territory for Harry, bias—both unconscious and intentional—had always been a part of Meghan’s life,” Scobie and Durand wrote.
Digital responsibility, and harnessing the positive energies of social media and online networks, became one of the couple’s prime areas of activism last year.
The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust (QCT) released a recording of a video conference call bringing together young leaders from its network with Meghan and Harry, specifically discussing social media and the role of the online world as a force for good. Harry and Meghan are president and vice president of the QCT respectively.
In a discussion that was described by their reps as “optimistic,” the group discussed the “power and potential of digital communities, collaboration and positive behaviors to drive mass positive change at scale.”
Harry at one stage asked, “How can you shut down hate without sharing it, without fueling it?”
Meghan said, “Everyone’s mental and emotional wellbeing are perhaps more fragile than ever before, certainly with COVID and our dependability on devices right now in the absence of human interaction. People are going online more than ever before to feel community.”
She added that a “key piece of the puzzle” is for individuals to not give into the “noise” of social media and to choose not to share negative social media posts further if they want to make a difference.
Meghan, commenting on the reach of global platforms and the impact of the social media ripple effect said, “When you look at what these platforms are capable of with that reach, and what that propels in terms of trolling… You can either train people to be cruel, or you can train people to be kind. It’s really that simple.”
Meghan also said, “I think that what’s so key to it, as we talk about positivity and optimism and what a healthy online community looks like, is it’s not an echo chamber. It is trying to build a healthy community so people feel safe heard and perhaps walk away with a different perspective.”
The couple also lobbied business leaders, heads of major corporations, and chief marketing officers at brands and organizations to stop funding and supporting what Harry claims are online platforms “that have contributed to, stoked, and created the conditions for a crisis of hate, a crisis of health, and a crisis of truth.”
Harry revealed the couple’s campaigning in an article written for Fast Company, saying their lobbying had begun around a month ago. “Our message was clear: The digital landscape is unwell,” he wrote, praising the work of civil rights and racial justice campaign called Stop Hate For Profit, whose own lobbying had led to $7 billion of “withheld ad dollars.”
Harry went further, criticizing technology’s reach into our private lives: “Every time you click, they learn more about you. Our information, private data, and unknown habits are traded on for advertising space and dollars. The price we’re all paying is much higher than it appears.”
It was necessary, the prince said, “to remodel the architecture of our online community in a way defined more by compassion than hate; by truth instead of misinformation; by equity and inclusiveness instead of injustice and fear-mongering; by free, rather than weaponized, speech.”
Queen invites Harry and Meghan to birthday celebrations
After all the alleged rows about money-making, titles, and tiaras (arguably the craziest rich-person fallout of all), the queen is reported to have invited Harry and Meghan to her 95th birthday celebrations—specifically this year’s Trooping the Color on June 12, the U.K. Sunday Times reports.
The monarch wants to get “back to business” after all the disruption caused to royal life and events by the coronavirus pandemic. It would also be the first time Harry and Meghan had been around the royals since “Megxit,” and would likely mean the couple would attend celebrations for Prince Philip’s 100th birthday two days before.
After last year’s scaled-back Trooping the Color, plans for a grander one this summer depend on where the country is at when it comes to coronavirus infections, social isolation orders, and vaccine rollout.
A senior royal aide told the Sunday Times: “The current plan is for the Queen’s birthday parade to go ahead in London as normal, with the acceptance that it may need to be adapted or scaled back depending on what guidelines are in force at the time. But the aspiration and the ultimate desire is to make it happen.”
One remaining “headache” is whether Prince Andrew should be allowed to attend the public celebrations. Many see his ambition to return to royal life as a deluded one, especially given his continued resistance to talk to the American authorities about his relationship with dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
William told Diana: Bashir is not ‘a good person’
Princess Diana’s former lover, heart and lung surgeon Hasnat Khan, has told the Daily Mail that Prince William had warned his mother about controversial BBC journalist Martin Bashir. “Mummy, he’s not a good person,” William—then 13—is alleged to have said.
Bashir had “filled her head with rubbish,” Khan said of the BBC journalist’s methods of securing the bombshell 1995 interview, in which Diana famously said that there had been three people in her marriage to Charles—a reference to Camilla Parker Bowles, now his second wife.
Khan told the Mail he had warned Diana that Bashir was dangerous and she “should have nothing more to do with him,” and that Diana had wanted to use the interview to force Prince Charles to divorce her. Claims that Bashir used underhand means to secure the interview—including forging bank statements—are presently being investigated in a new inquiry.
Meghan can’t apply for British citizenship—for now
Meghan Markle has officially missed her chance to become a U.K. citizen, at least for now, DailyMail.com has reported.
Meghan is required to live in the U.K. for a minimum of three years before applying for citizenship and legally qualifying for a British passport, but she has not yet spent enough time in the U.K to do so.
The Mail said Meghan had moved to the U.K. on Nov. 21, 2017. She could have submitted her application for citizenship on Nov. 20 last year. However, applicants cannot spend more than 270 days outside Britain in that three-year window—which Meghan did. It is believed she still intends to become a U.K. citizen; the question is when, especially as she and Harry appear—for now at least—so happily ensconced in California.
Harry and Meghan brace for Samantha Markle book
Samantha Markle has long been a thorn in half-sister Meghan’s side, and so one can imagine the mood in Montecito not being super-anticipatory over the imminent publication of her “memoire,” The Diary Of Princess Pushy's Sister Part 1—which kind of sounds like the nightmare version of The Princess Diaries.
The sell, according to Barnes & Noble: “Amidst a firestorm of fake news and media mayhem, Samantha Markle shares the truth about her life and family against all odds and ultimatums, as a royal fairy tale plummets from the tea towels. Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.”
The siblings have been estranged since 2008. Samantha has trashed Meghan to the press on a number of occasions, claiming that she would hold Meghan responsible if their father suddenly died and said that, “Diana would be ashamed” of her treatment of their father Thomas, after Meghan broke off contact with him.
Samantha has also accused Meghan of being a social climber—so don’t expect the book to be exceptionally positive and glowing. Samantha recently told The Sun the royal family might like the book, but it may make Meghan “uncomfortable.” This may turn out to be an understatement.
Just before Christmas, Samantha, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is in a wheelchair, accused her husband of domestic violence. She told police that he had struck her on the right side of her face after she asked for his help using the bathroom late at night.
Happy birthday, Kate!
Kate Middleton celebrated her 39th birthday Saturday, with the royal family going all out on Instagram with well-wishes.
The Kensington Palace Instagram account, representing Kate and William, wrote: “Thank you for your kind wishes on The Duchess’ birthday. Birthdays have been very different in recent months, and our thoughts continue to be with all those working on the front line at this hugely challenging time.”
This week in royal history
On Jan. 13 last year, the so-called “Sandringham Summit” took place, in which the queen, Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry met to thrash out the terms of “Megxit.”
Afterwards, in an unprecedented public statement, the queen said that while “we would have preferred” Harry and Meghan “to remain full-time working members of the royal family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.” There has been much rumored royal unhappiness with how Meghan and Harry have conducted their business affairs since leaving royal life behind.
Unanswered questions
What fresh embarrassments await Meghan and Harry care of Samantha Markle’s book? And will their decision to forsake the online world lead the way for others to do the same?
