Meghan Markle: royal family issues warning to social media trolls

The Palace has been forced to act amid an all-out war between rival fans of the Duchesses of Sussex and Cambridge.

The Duchess of Sussex and the Duchess of Cambridge have been the target of constant online abuse. Picture: AFP

The royal family has issued new rules on how to behave on its social media channels, vowing to block trolls who post abusive or offensive messages.

Individuals who write comments that are threatening or hateful will find them hidden, deleted or reported to the police. The guidelines also state that comments must not “contain spam, be defamatory of any person, deceive others, be obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory or promote sexually explicit material or violence”.

They also must not “promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age”.

The joint initiative by Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace comes weeks after it emerged that Kensington Palace staff were spending hours each week moderating online abuse aimed at the Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex.

Some of the most vituperative comments are between rival fans of the duchesses.

However, there have also been direct attacks on the women. A contributor recently wrote next to a video of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex: “Soon it will be me who is next to Harry and Megssy will be gone.”

The message was followed by six emoji images of a kitchen knife. There have also been slurs against the duchess with a racial element.

Although the impetus for the move has come from the households of the younger royals, there have also been unpleasant exchanges on Buckingham Palace’s platforms, and Clarence House has had to deal with personal attacks on the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.

One aide said that the new guidelines were the result of the large increase in the number of followers of the various royal platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. The royal family has 4.8 million followers on Facebook and the Kensington Palace Instagram account has 7.8 million.

A royal source said: “We are encouraging people to think about what they are saying before they post, especially when they are in conversation with each other.

“The main problem we have encountered is the way people treat each other, not the way they comment on members of the royal family. We hope to make people take their words more seriously.”

The royal family’s website said the guidelines were introduced to try to maintain a safe environment on channels run by the three households.

It said: “The aim of our social media channels is to create an environment where our community can engage safely in debate and is free to make comments, questions and suggestions.

“We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities.”

Aides were at pains to point out that they were not trying to stifle criticism of the royal family. In one exchange, which was not taken down by the palace, one user replied to another with a link to God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols, one of the more memorable attacks on the monarchy in the past half century.

The royal website says it reserves the right to hide or delete comments made on its channels, and to block users who flout the guidelines. It adds: “We also reserve the right to send any comments we deem appropriate to law enforcement authorities for investigation as we feel necessary or is required by law.”

This is thought to refer to direct physical threats. Although rare, they have been made both against members of the royal family and other social media users.

The Times