Toxic Trolls Attacking Meghan Markle and Kate Middlton Have Infiltrated the Polite World of Royal Watching
A leading U.K. tabloid, Hello! is known for its coverage of celebrity fashion, relationships and beauty-along with round-the-clock royals news. But yesterday, the magazine published something rather unexpected: A plea to their readers, asking them to be kinder to Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle, and celebrities in general. The campaign, called #HelloToKindness, aims to "champion positivity" and combat an uptick in trolls attacking Meghan Markle, Kate Middleton, and their fans online-and especially on Kensington Palace's social media accounts.
Kensington Palace spends hours trying to moderate the hateful comments the duchesses receive, a source told Hello!'s royal reporter Emily Nash. "The Palace has always monitored comments but it’s a hugely time consuming thing," the source told the outlet. "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." Beyond Kensington Palace's verified social media pages, this new breed of royal trolls is also spreading hate in the comments of prominent Kate and Meghan fan sites and social media accounts.
What's changed? With Meghan and Harry's wedding, there are two young duchesses in the royal family for the first time in a generation, and there is a woman of color in the royal family for what some believe to be first time ever. Add the 24/7 coverage and anonymous commenting capabilities of social media, and suddenly this historic moment has become fodder for sexist, racist, and classist comments that pit the two women against each other.
According to people who run blogs and social media accounts devoted to Meghan and Kate, trolls don't make up the majority of royal fans. But warring Kate Middleton versus Meghan Markle fandoms exist, and they won't hesitate to attack the duchess they don't "stan" and her fans. They have utterly changed the once-polite world of royal watching, sowing toxicity, divisiveness. (And, according to several reports that have come out, the cruel comments and headlines have affected Meghan herself on some level. A royal insider made it clear to ELLE.com previously that Meghan is aware of the salacious reports about her but doesn't read tabloid gossip. A source told Us Weekly in December that it's been "frustrating" and "stressful" for Meghan with the tabloid stories “to have no voice. She’s always relied on her own voice to stand up for others, and for herself.")
"We've seen two warring camps develop online," royal blogger Charlotte, who runs Duchess Kate and Mad About Meghan, told ELLE.com. "If an engagement is announced for one duchess, the supporting camp of the other duchess goes into overdrive. Ardent fans known as 'stans' online have driven the once affable online community into an incredibly divisive place filled with vile insults, abuse and inexcusable behavior."
"Some people feel the need to compare them, or create a competition," said Christine Ross, editor of What Would Kate Do? and Meghan’s Mirror, "when in reality the world needs both women-women who raise awareness for worthy causes, encourage kindness, and support their communities and the world around them."
The hatred toward Meghan is racist, classist, and "more sinister"
Charlotte told ELLE.com that there is something "more sinister and incendiary about the reaction to Meghan."
"I began blogging about the Duchess of Cambridge weeks after the royal wedding in 2011," she said. "About six months before Harry and Meghan announced their engagement, I decided to blog about the future duchess. Within 24 hours of launching the Mad About Meghan blog, I was overwhelmed by the negativity, classism, snobbery, racism and abusive attitudes regarding Meghan. It seemed a group had already prejudged her and deemed her an unsuitable addition to the Royal family. Whilst Kate most certainly endured shocking comments online and dreadfully unkind articles, especially during her pre-wedding [and pre-engagement] days with 'Waity Katie' headlines, there was something altogether more sinister and incendiary about the reaction to Meghan. All the more shocking was the fact much of this was coming from mature, professional women."
Susan, who runs What Kate Wore, has also noticed that Meghan attracts more attacks. "I co-manage the What Meghan Wore site with my business partner, Susan Courter, and the issue there is equally troubling, if not more so," she said. "There is a very strong comment policy on that site as well. If one were to look at percentages, I think there are more people attacking Meghan than going after Kate."
Francesca, who runs Harry_Meghan_Updates on Instagram with over 229,000 followers, created the page to celebrate Meghan and her work after noticing the hate that Meghan was getting on her own official social media channels. "I created the page after I noticed that more and more users on Instagram were attacking Meghan's official page," she said. "I found it unfair and outrageous."
Sexism and racism, of course, accounts for the attacks, Susan added. "One of the contributing factors is that we're dealing with two women; if we were talking about two men I don't think we'd be having this conversation," she said. "The narrative of two women having a catfight continues to be perpetuated in some quarters. I also think there is an element of racism involved, along with some old-fashioned snobbery. Combine those with the anonymity afforded by social media, and people end up posting things online they would never, ever say to someone in person."
Things have gotten worse over the past year-and comments are being more moderated in response.
Meghan Markle's entry into the royal family has been a real turning point. "Over eight years of royal fashion blogging, I have seen a fair amount of nasty comments on the site and also on social media," Susan said. "But I have never seen anything like what has been going on the last several months. It has been disturbing to see such a large number of negative and openly abusive statements about both Duchesses, as well as the vitriol that fans are using when communicating with, or at, each other."
Susan noted that What Kate Wore has a strong comment policy already and comments were always moderated. "But I have had to post reminders about that policy on the blog more often. I am also seeing more comments than ever before that I won't publish," she said. "Some target the Duchess of Cambridge, some are aimed at the Duchess of Sussex, and many are aimed at opposing fan factions. Additionally, there has been a significant increase in comments that need to be deleted from the Facebook page; it now has to be continually monitored and at times I have asked family and friends to help in this regard."
On her Meghan/Harry Instagram, Francesca has been deleting comments and posting reminders too for people to be kinder. "I've made a decision for my account: I delete evil, insulting comments; I block people who only cause trouble; I also often try to contact them privately and ask them to stop," she said. "Only followers are allowed to comment on my account. That minimizes evil comments. I publish statements from time to time and remind people to be nicer."
Charlotte has also made statements to fans. "Shortly after the engagement, I addressed readers on both blogs in an effort to combat the vitriolic atmosphere developing on social media, blogs and media outlets. I recall writing: 'Kate is Kate. Meghan is Meghan. Both are entirely different women, with different strengths and weaknesses, in entirely different roles. In a society that pits women against each other, as a community we must strive to avoid the Kate v Meghan narrative.' It's been a constant battle since to keep the pitting of both women against each other off the blogs."
Salacious headlines about Meghan and Kate have only made things worse.
The increase in Meghan and Kate attacks may be partly due to the salacious media coverage of Kate, Meghan, and their feud. (That feud, by the way, has really no truth to it. As a royal source told ELLE.com previously, Kate and Meghan have no "ongoing royal rift," just "enormous respect" for each other.) It can be fodder for some to create cruel comments off of that smear the duchesses.
"I, and many others, feel it's equally important to note the manner in which media outlets have reported on Meghan," Charlotte said. "From the moment Harry and Meghan's relationship was revealed, she was subjected to nothing short of a character assassination. In 2016, Kensington Palace released a statement condemning the 'defamatory stories,' the 'smear on the front of a national newspaper' and the 'racial undertones of comment pieces.' Over two years later, Meghan is not reported on fairly compared to other members of the Royal family by many outlets, and she is also not given credit for her undeniable success in her role. There seems to be a voracious appetite for painting her in an extremely negative light without any justifiable reason."
Francesca also noted that some tabloids' salacious coverage of Meghan helped increase the number of hateful comments that the Duchess of Sussex got on her page. "After a while, certain media sites started attacking Meghan, and the offensive comments against Meghan became more frequent," she said. "It was as if enemies were waiting for confirmation. Comparisons between Kate and Meghan became more frequent."
In the case of Kate fans hating on Meghan, "they emphasize that Kate is 'elegant,' 'queen,' 'royal,' 'beautiful,' and Meghan is not," Francesca said. "And Meghan fans criticizes Kate for her dress choice which is 'boring,' and Kate ultimately didn't work in life [a jab at Kate's being from an upper class British family]. We’re allowed to dislike someone; we’re allowed to express ourselves," she said. But people need to "always pay attention to how to write it. Pay attention to how we express ourselves."
There's genuine excitement for what #HelloToKindness can achieve
Charlotte, Susan, Christine, and Francesca all applauded Hello!'s campaign for starting a conversation about what has been happening.
"We would love to see the #HelloToKindness campaign spark a larger conversation, which it has already started, about the way we interact behind the anonymity of screens," Christine said. "These conversations can create change in both social media and written media, lending to a more supportive and uplifting narrative."
Susan called it a terrific idea. "We have moved into territory where people are not reading or listening to learn from one another; they are listening to argue and debate," she said. "The campaign brings the subject out into the open so we can have a dialogue about the problem. It isn't going to reach everyone, but anything to that helps minimize the hostility and elevates the conversation is a big plus. "
"The #HelloToKindness campaign is a small and significant step," Francesca said. She also pointed out that Hello! has generally been better in its coverage of Meghan than some other outlets, and that resonated with her. They "don't participate in the pursuit against the Duchess of Sussex. Editor-in-Chief Rosie Nixon made a statement last year that the team would not report about the family of Meghan out of consideration for Meghan's feelings."
Charlotte is encouraged to see action taken toward eliminating toxicity among the duchesses' fandoms. "I'm hugely in favor of any campaign, any steps taken, to addressing the deplorable situation in the online royal watching community," Charlotte said. "If #HelloToKindness prompts even a handful of people to question their behavior online, it's a step in the right direction. Certainly, the majority of keyboard warriors wouldn't contemplate regurgitating their abuse to a person's face. Why is it acceptable to abuse someone online?"
('You Might Also Like',)
