Princess of Wales ‘revictimised’ by trolls over cancer disclosure
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The Princess of Wales has been “revictimised” by social media trolls who have publicly blamed her for not disclosing her cancer diagnosis sooner, a leading expert in countering online extremism has said.
Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, said conspiracy theories about the Princess had already been amplified on social media platforms to reach “millions and millions of people”.
Even after her personal video explaining that she was undergoing treatment for cancer in the form of preventative chemotherapy, social media users further accused her of allowing the conspiracy theories to spread by not speaking out sooner.
In fact, the Princess of Wales timed her message deliberately around the welfare of her three young children, wanting to give them time to process news of their mother’s health away from the public discourse.
While the children have known privately for some time, supported by their parents, the Princess chose to release the video at the start of their Easter school holidays so they could retreat safely from the public eye.
Mr Ahmed, discussed the issue on the BBC television programme Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
“When you’ve got a young lady, the Princess of Wales, who has suffered a medical emergency, you see people flooding in with conspiracy theories, you see them being amplified on social media platforms and pushed to millions and millions of people,” he said.
“What really, I think, annoyed me was seeing that she was then being revictimised by being blamed for not having come out immediately.
“Of course a family needs to have its time and its privacy. I think it’s the inhumanity of the way that social media has made us behave, forcing people to talk about things that can be very deeply personal.
“And also seeing of course the impact of that on our society, how quickly it was picked up by millions of people, and how much it’s done damage to the Royal family themselves.”
Speaking on the same programme, Paddy Harverson, the former palace adviser, said the speculation and pressure around the Princess of Wales’s health and whereabouts before her video statement was “the worst I’ve ever seen”.
Mr Harverson, who was previously the official spokesman for the King and also Prince William in the early years of his relationship with Kate Middleton, as she was known at the time, said the social and mainstream media “feeds off itself”.
“It’s a sort of permanent doom loop,” he said. “And it’s the worst I’ve ever seen.”
He added it took time for the Royal family to come to terms with the Princess’s diagnosis.
“I’m absolutely convinced that if we hadn’t had all the madness and social media, if we hadn’t had the sort of the Mother’s Day photo mistake, they would have still done it like this,” he said of the video statement on Friday.
Palace sources have spoken of hopes that social media giants might use the furore to tighten up systems that currently allow defamatory lies and conspiracy theories to spread unchecked.
‘Brave message’
Linda Yaccarino, the chief executive of X, formerly Twitter, described the Princess’s video as a “brave message delivered by Princess Kate with her signature grace” in a post accompanied by a heart emoji.
“Her request for privacy, to protect her children and allow her to move forward (without endless speculation) seems like a reasonable request to respect,” she said.
One aide said the message had been noted as “really interesting”, adding: “If it prompts social media platforms to look at this issue, it could be one positive out of a negative.”
The Prince of Wales has previously taken on the digital technology giants in a 2018 appeal to ask them to take the damaging side of social media more seriously.
In the past, he has focused on the dangers it poses to young people, as well as the proliferation of fake news on a variety of topics around the world, not just the Royal family.
In 2018, in a speech at the BBC as part of an update on his Cyberbullying Taskforce, Prince William condemned the “defensive” attitude of social media firms in refusing to accept their role in the spread of hate speech, fake news and the torment of young people in their own homes.
“I am very concerned though that on every challenge they face – fake news, extremism, polarisation, hate speech, trolling, mental health, privacy, and bullying – our tech leaders seem to be on the back foot,” he said.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have also attempted to tackle online disinformation and bullying.
Prince Harry has taken a role on a commission on information disorder at the Aspen Institute, a US thinktank, in which he described a “mis- and disinformation crisis” as a global humanitarian issue and argued for action against super-spreaders of false content.
The Duchess of Sussex, speaking earlier this month on a panel about women in the media, called on unnamed female executives in tech to do more to block online hate.
“There are a lot of women at the highest executive level who are great champions of women and great philanthropists, and they are working in these spaces, and yet they’re allowing this kind of behaviour to run rampant,” she said.
