Prince Harry.Photo: Chris Jackson - Pool/Getty
Prince Harrysaid he “warned” Twitter CEOJack Dorseythat “his platform was allowing a coup to be staged” — one day before riotersinvaded the U.S. Capitol building.
On Tuesday, Harrytook part inWiredmagazine’s RE:WIRED virtual summitin New York City, joining the “Internet Lie Machine” panel discussion alongside Renée DiResta of the Stanford Internet Observatory and Rashad Robinson of Color of Change.
Asked if he has spoken to Facebook founderMark Zuckerbergor Twitter’s Dorsey, Harry said, “Jack and I were emailing each other prior to January 6, where I warned him that his platform was allowing a coup to be staged. That email was sent the day before, then it happened, and I haven’t heard from him since.”
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Thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trumpdescending on the Capitol as Congress counted electoral votes to affirmPresident Joe Biden’s election win. The event led to five deaths and the arrest of hundreds of people.
Jack Dorsey.Scott Olson/Getty
Prince Harry, 37, called misinformation a “global humanitarian crisis” during the panel, blasting social media platforms for encouraging the spread of lies.
“I felt it personally over the years, and I’m now watching it happen globally affecting everyone, not just America, literally everyone around the world,” he said. “I learned from a very early age that the incentives of publishing are not necessarily aligned with the incentives of the truth.”
The father of two noted, “I know the story all too well. I lost my mother to this self-manufactured rabidness, and obviously I’m determined not to lose the mother to my children to the same thing.”
Prince Harry.Chris Jackson/Getty Images
He alsoaddressed the term “Megxit,“which went viral afterMeghan Markleand Harry announced their decision tostep back as senior working royalsin January 2020.
Later in the panel discussion, Harry cited anindependent reportthat found “more than 70 percent of the hate speech about my wife on Twitter can be traced to fewer than 50 accounts.” He implicated tabloid journalists in “amplifying the hate and the lies,” saying they “regurgitate these lies as truth.”
And he underlined the synergy between legacy media and social media in commodifying viral content to toxic ends — name-checkingSuccession’s fictional media tycoon,Logan Roy, and real-life media mogulRupert Murdoch.
“This isn’t just a social media problem. It’s a media problem,” he said. “I’ve grown up learning that news should be sacred ground. You don’t have to be Logan Roy or Rupert Murdoch to understand that clickbait is the descendant of targeted advertising.”
But he also struck a hopeful note, affirming, “Real journalists have the power and the will to tackle racism, misogyny, lies, all of it from within their own systems.”
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Also on Tuesday, Meghan joinedThe New York TimesDealBook Online Summitandtook aim at the tabloid media.
“Well, firstly I would urge you not to read tabloids,” Meghan told host Andrew Ross Sorkin. “Because I don’t think that’s healthy for anyone. Hopefully, one day they come with a warning label like cigarettes do. Like, ‘This is toxic for your mental health.'”
source: people.com
