Prince Harry responded to a news story that he and Meghan Markle were quitting social media, noting in a wide-ranging interview with Fast Company published Friday that they had closed their main social media account months ago.
âWe woke up one morning a couple of weeks ago to hear that a Rupert Murdoch newspaper said we were evidently quitting social media,â the Duke of Sussex told Fast Companyâs Katharine Schwab. âThat was ânewsâ to us, bearing in mind we have no social media to quit, nor have we for the past 10 months.ââ
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who announced their intention to step back as working members of the royal family in January 2020, paused activity on their record-breaking Sussex Royal Instagram account last March.
Earlier this month, a report in The Sunday Times declared it âvery unlikelyâ that the couple would use social media accounts for personal use again, or to promote the work of their non-profit Archewell Foundation.
But Harry said that isnât necessarily the case for the couple, who now reside in California with their son, Archie.
âThe truth is, despite its well-documented ills, social media can offer a means of connecting and community, which are vital to us as human beings,â the royal said.
âWe will revisit social media when it feels right for us â perhaps when we see more meaningful commitments to change or reform â but right now weâve thrown much of our energy into learning about this space and how we can help,â he added.
In the Fast Company interview, the Duke of Sussex was also asked about the online harassment he and Meghan faced in the U.K., which theyâve endured from the very start of their courtship.
âI was really surprised to witness how my story had been told one way, my wifeâs story had been told one way, and then our union sparked something that made the telling of that story very different,â the 36-year-old said. âThat false narrative became the mothership for all of the harassment youâre referring to. It wouldnât have even begun had our story just been told truthfully.â
The Duchess of Sussex, 39, has previously spoken about the âalmost unsurvivableâ online hate she faced while on maternity leave in 2019. Meghan said she was told she âwas the most trolled person in the entire world â male or female.â
In addition to personal harassment, Harry spoke about the dangers of disinformation online and how it contributed to the deadly U.S. Capitol riot in Washington on Jan. 6.
âWe have seen time and again what happens when the real-world cost of misinformation is disregarded. There is no way to downplay this,â the duke said. âThere was a literal attack on democracy in the United States, organized on social media, which is an issue of violent extremism.â
âWe are losing loved ones to conspiracy theories, losing a sense of self because of the barrage of mistruths, and at the largest scale, losing our democracies. The magnitude of this cannot be overstated, as noted even by the defectors who helped build these platforms,â Harry added.
The couple has continued to speak out against disinformation and online hate during virtual appearances over the last year.
The Sussexesâ new Archewell Foundation is also committed to focusing on online reform, through partnerships with the Archewell Foundation Fund for the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry and the Center for Humane Technology.
In terms of actions that internet and social media users can take, Meghan has previously offered âone clear, tangible thingâ people can do to stop misinformation.
âIt really just includes not contributing to or even clicking on misinformation,â the former âSuitsâ actor said while speaking at Fortuneâs Most Powerful Women virtual summit in September. âAnd when you know something is wrong, reporting it, talking about it, ensuring that the facts are getting out there.â
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