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- The royal family announced social media guidelines for how online users should interact with its official accounts run by Royal Family, Clarence House, and Kensington Palace.
- The rules say comments on the royals’ posts must not be spam, defamatory, abusive, threatening, or sexually explicit, and cannot promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or age.
- The announcement comes months after Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton were reportedly targeted with online abuse and caught between feud rumors.
This morning, the British Royal Family unveiled an official set of social media guidelines “to help create a safe environment” on accounts run by the Royal Family, Clarence House, and Kensington Palace, according to a press release.
“We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities,” the statement reads.
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The newly-unveiled social media guidelines say:
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.
– Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
– Breach any of the terms of any of the social media platforms themselves.
Be off-topic, irrelevant or unintelligible. Contain any advertising or promote any services.
The rules also confirm the accounts have the right to delete comments or block users that don’t follow the guidelines, or send comments to authorities if deemed appropriate.
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Although the royals didn’t specify why they’re introducing the guidelines at this time, the announcement comes months after the Duchess of Sussex and the Duchess of Cambridge were targeted by online trolls and feud rumors. Back in January, royal correspondent Emily Nash reported that threats have been made to the duchesses and their own fans were targeting each other with online abuse. Nash added that Kensington Palace staff were “spending hours each week moderating sexist and racist comments” aimed at Meghan and Kate.
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Kensington Palace made a similar rare statement in 2016 after Prince Harry’s relationship with Meghan went public. In it, the prince called out the “wave of abuse and harassment” Meghan had experienced from social media users and the tabloid media. Such criticism included “outright sexism and racism,” Harry said in a statement.
From: Harper’s BAZAAR US
