Prince Harry is convinced that misinformation disseminated through social media was an important part of planning the January 6 uprising in the U.S. capital.
The Duke of Sussex argues in a new Fast Company Q&A that “dominant online platforms have contributed to and sparked the conditions for a crisis of hate, a health crisis and a truth crisis.”
“We are losing loved ones to conspiracy theories,” he continued, “are losing self-esteem to the barrage of untruths, and on the largest scale we are losing our democracies.”
When asked about the “well-documented online harassment” he and wife Meghan Markle experienced while in the UK, Harry says false reports circulated through social media were a big contributor.
“I was really surprised to see my story told one way, my wife’s story one way, and then our union kick-started something that made telling that story very different,” he said.
That false story became the mothership for all the harassment you refer to. It wouldn’t even have started if our story had just been told truthfully. “
Harry also addressed tech giants like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook who are banning former president Trump, and while he doesn’t directly mention Trump, he feels that companies have every right to regulate those they believe are abusing the platform.
“We have seen time and again what happens when the true cost of misinformation is disregarded,” he continued. “There is no way to downplay this. There was a literal attack on democracy in the United States, organized on social media, and that is a matter of violent extremism. “
It was reported last week that Harry and Meghan are likely to retire from social media altogether because of the “hate” they have received.