Kensington Palace keeps royal fans up to date by regularly posting updates of what Duchess Kate (37) and Duchess Meghan (37) are up to on their Twitter and Instagram accounts. A steady flow of vitriolic online abuse has made it very difficult for Kensington Palace however, with hateful comments having to be deleted regularly.
Kate vs Meghan?!
A source told Hello! that "the Palace has always monitored comments, but it’s a hugely time consuming thing. They can block certain words, but some of it is quite serious. Over the course of last year, with hundreds of thousands of comments, there were two or three that were violent threats. You can delete and report and block people and the police have options around particular people. It’s something you have to manage because there’s no other way to control it".
More Online Acceptance Needed: #HelloToKindness
While Meghan deleted all her social media accounts whilst engaged to Prince Harry, it seems that this has not offered much protection from negativity. Some members of the public feel a strong allegiance to either Meghan or Kate and rumours of a rift between the two duchesses have only served to create stronger feelings of "loyalty", resulting in some of Meghan's fans attacking Kate's fans online and vice versa.
According to Hello!'s source, "some of the worst stuff is between Kate fans and Meghan fans. Arguments about who looks more appropriate, for example, that turn into personal attacks on other users. It’s creating a supercharged atmosphere and everyone can join in, but what are the consequences of this?”
In an effort to promote more acceptance online and to diffuse mounting tensions, Hello! has created its very own initiative, #HelloToKindness. We salute the publication for its efforts!
