The Duke and Duchess of Sussex hosted a specially curated edition of tht Time100 Talks, focused on the state of our digital experience entitled ‘Engineering a Better World’. The episode featured experts, advocates, online creators and journalists to discuss the pursuit of a more compassionate, safe and trustworthy digital world. This is the latest endeavour on the Sussexes’ crusade against what Harry branded a “crisis of hate, of misinformation and health”.
However, some social media users have pointed out that die-hard Meghan and Harry fans, known as the ‘Sussex Squad’, have been known to troll people online including journalists, royals like Kate Middleton, and fans of other members of the Windsor family.
Several people on Twitter called on the couple to condemn this trolling that is done in their name.
One person said: “When will they denounce their own Sussex Squad for being one of the biggest online hate speech communities and for creating a global crisis of hate and misinformation?”
Another said: “Meghan’s fanbase is the most toxic of online communities, yet she has failed to call them out or make them accountable.”
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry called for a kinder, healthier online world (Image: TIME)
Some of the Sussex Squad direct mean messages to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Image: GETTY)
A third person pointed out that Meghan and Harry even once personally thanked someone who was linked to an account that had sent vile messages to the Duchess of Cambrdige and the rest of the Royal Family.
The Duke and Duchess phoned a fan to thank her for her support and for raising £45,000 ($58,000) for charities like Camfed ‒ which champions female education ‒ telling her they were “so moved and happy”.
However, the fan in question, Dani Trin, was linked to a Twitter account, which had sent foul-mouthed abuse to other royals.
Posts referred to Kate as a “b****” and Prince William as an “a**hole”, which another called the Royal Family a “s***, messy, toxic institution”.
Prince Harry has claimed there is a crisis of hate, misinformation and health online (Image: GETTY)
Despite this social media blunder, Meghan and Harry never apologised for this incident.
Nevertheless, it is clear that creating a kinder online space is a cause close to their hearts.
In an interview with Editor-in-Chief and CEO of TIME, Edward Felsenthal, the couple explained how it linked up with the other causes they care about ‒ for Meghan, the empowerment of women, and for Harry, mental health and the environment.
Meghan said: “It was only in the past couple of years that we both started to connect the dots of all of the work that I was doing on women’s empowerment or young girls and their sense of self and self-worth, and seeing what the online spaces were doing to that community.
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Meghan and Harry now live in Montecito in California (Image: GETTY)
“And equally, my husband has worked quite a bit in the space of mental health, but also the environment…”
What’s more, they have also been victims of trolling themselves and have spoken about how much it hurts them.
An analysis by Hope Not Hate found that the Duchess was subject to 5,200 hateful tweets in just two months, with 70 percent coming from 20 accounts.
Some of these tweets contained vile sexist and racist language.
Indeed, as far back as November 2016, the couple called out the “outright sexism and racism of social media trolls” in a Palace statement.
This year, the couple supported a boycott of Facebook, encouraging companies not to advertise with the social media giant in June in order to force it to strengthen its policy on hate, abuse and misinformation on its platform.
On National Voter Registration Day last month, the couple took part in a Time100 video, encouraging Americans to vote.
However, in the same video they brought up the topic of the online world, with Meghan said: “What we are exposed to online seeps into how we engage with each other offline.
“It can train us to be kind or it can train us to be cruel.”
Now, they are continuing that discussion in partnership with Time100, in a talk featuring conversations with Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, Rappler co-founder Maria Ressa and Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Centre for Humane Technology.
