Prince Harry says misinformation on social media contributed to the US Capitol attacks and the long harassment of Meghan Markle.
The royal, whose move to California with Markle and their 1-year-old son Archie shocked the British monarchy last year, took part in a Friday Q&A with Fast company talking about politics to Big Tech and family life.
Harry’s share in responsible social media comes from a lifetime in the public eye – first as a member of the royal family, and when he and his brother, Prince William, mourned the death of their mother, Diana, in 1997. of Wales, also a media report. Recently, Harry-and-Meghan mania led the couple to trade royal life for a quieter existence in the United States.
‘“I was really surprised to see how my story was told in one way, my wife’s story was told in one way, and then our union sparked something that made telling that story different,” the 36-year-old said. Fast company. ‘That false narrative became motherhood for all the harassment you are referring to. It would not have started even if our story had only been told truth. But the most important thing of what we experienced was that it led to us hearing from so many other people around the world. We have thought a lot about people in much more vulnerable positions than we do, and how much need there is for real empathy and support. ”
In the run-up to their wedding in 2018, Markle, whose father is white and mother is black, was targeted in sexist and racist online attacks, which Harry addressed in a public statement. In it, he warned that a line was crossed from fair reporting to harassment and libel.
But Harry’s personal life is not his only motivation – the January 6 attack by former President Donald Trump supporters, which was aimed at overthrowing President Biden’s government, was rightly disturbing. “To their own extent, everyone has been deeply affected by the current effects of the digital space,” he said. Fast company. “It can be as individual as seeing a loved one on the path to radicalization, or as collective as denying the science behind the climate crisis.”
He continued: “We are all vulnerable to it, so I do not see it as a technological issue or a political issue – it is a humanitarian issue.”
Following the historic security breach, Trump was banned from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Twitch on the grounds that he played a role in inciting the violence. The ban further divided the public, some of whom claimed Trump’s speech rights had been violated.
‘… We must avoid buying the idea that social media is the ultimate contemporary public square and that any attempt to ask platforms to account for the landscape they have created is an attack or restriction of speech is, ‘said Harry. ‘I think it’s a false choice to say you have to choose between free speech or a more compassionate and reliable digital world. They do not exclude each other. ”
In March, Harry and Meghan dropped their own Sussex Royal Instagram account and wrote, “Even though you will not see us here, the work continues.” The work is the Archewell Foundation, the nonprofit couple working with mental health and medical research firms, coupled with technology that provides ‘innovative and healthy platforms’.
“We need to support them, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it can make commercial sense,” he said. “And we need to look at the state of competition and ensure that the landscape is not expressed or encouraged without ideas without ideas.”
Right now, the relationship between Harry and Meghan with social media is quiet. Asked if his relationship with the networks had changed, he replied: ‘It’s funny you have to ask, because ironically we woke up one morning a few weeks ago to hear a newspaper from Rupert Murdoch say has that we apparently stop ending social media. This was ‘news’ for us, considering we have no social media to stop, nor for the past ten months. ‘
Harry added, ‘We will revisit social media if it feels right for us – perhaps if we see more meaningful commitments to change or reform – but at the moment we have spent a lot of our energy learning more about this space and how we can help. ”
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