Podcast 111 – Report finds Twitter accounts, intentionally targeted Meghan Markle & Prince Harry with hate

During a period in which there is increasing pressure for social media platforms to do more to curb on-line hate speech,  and when there are more and more reports about the connection between inflammatory speech online and violent acts,  this week a report was released into the hate speech on Twitter directed against Meghan and Harry.

The report (click here to see it   https://botsentinel.com/reports/documents/duke-and-duchess-of-sussex/report-10-26-2021.pdf ) was produced by the Twitter monitoring organization called Bot Sentinel. 

In their report into the Twitter hate directed at Meghan and Harry since they stepped down from Royal life in early 2020,  Bot Sentinel report that a relatively small number of what they term single purpose anti-Meghan and Harry accounts create and disseminate most of the hateful content. 

Bot Sentinel report that they analysed 114,000 tweets and they isolated about 55 single purpose account as the primary hate accounts, with about 28 secondary hate accounts with these 83 accounts combined having about 187.5 thousand followed.  These 83 accounts were responsible for 70% of the original and derivative content targeting Harry and Meghan on Twitter, with the potential to ultimately reach approx. 17 million twitter users.

Bot Sentinel state that the hate messaging was not confined to Twitter. The accounts would often Tweet links to private blogs, Instagram accounts, and YouTube focused predominantly on Meghan and Harry. 

Bot Sentinel name and shame these 83 accounts,  and conclude that in their opinion the users were violating Twitter’s rules on platform manipulation and spam, abuse and harassment policies, and in publishing private information. Twitter’s terms of service forbid abusive behaviours and engagement that harasses or intimidates or is otherwise intended to shame or degrade others, and they prohibit coordination between accounts that results in harm to others.

Bot Sentinel CEO and founder Christopher Bouzy was interviewed by BuzzFeed News about the Meghan and Harry report. He told BuzzFeed that when Bot Sentinel announced they would be launching an investigation into anti-Meghan and Harry accounts on Twitter, he became the target of a fully-fledged harassment campaign unlike he said, anything that he or his team had experienced before. Bouzy described the harassment that he and his team received as different and personal with false allegations being made against him to try to pre-emptively discredit the report’s findings. 

Mr. Bouzy emphasized that the negative Twitter activity towards Meghan and Harry is not being done by automated BOT accounts but by real accounts run by humans.  He added that these people know how the manipulate the algorithms, manipulate Twitter and stay under the radar to avoid detection and suspension. 

BuzzFeed approached Twitter about the findings in the Bot Sentinel report who informed BuzzFeed they were actively investigating the information and the accounts referenced in the report, saying they would take action of accounts that violate the Twitter Rules. 

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili. You can reach out to me through my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/ and on twitter https://twitter.com/JeanetteSongolo

Show written and produced by Jeanette Songolo.

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili and in the meantime watch out for other posts on all things Sussex on my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/