Meghan Markle and her husband Prince Harry have reportedly been victims of a coordinated hate and misinformation campaign on Twitter, and leave my girl Megs alone, you bird app-using creeps.
According to a new report by Twitter analytic company Bot Sentinel, the former royal couple has been ripped apart on the platform. Of the over 114,000 tweets examined in the report, Markle copped about 70% of the abuse in them.
The report analysed 114,000 tweets about the pair and found 80% of them featured language attacking or spreading misinformation about Markle in particular. 83 accounts were allegedly behind 70% of them; 55 of those were primary Twitter accounts while 28 were secondary accounts that were used to amplify tweets from the original primary ones.
“Our analysis allowed us to isolate 55 single-purpose accounts we identified as the primary hate accounts and 28 secondary hate accounts that mainly amplified the primary accounts”, the report said, adding that the 83 accounts had “a combined unique potential reach of 17 million users”.
OOOF. Are we sure The Sun UK ain’t one of them?
Given the way conservative media outlets have attacked Meghan Markle for literally just vibing, and when compared to the way these outlets idolise the white members of the British royal family, it isn’t at all surprising to hear that some of these tweets featured coded racist language.
According to some of the tweet examples in the 13-page report, these tweets featured claims about her “playing the victim of racial discrimination” from Twitter accounts allegedly run by a person of colour, as well as sharing misinforming and extremely untrue claims that Meghan was sleeping around with directors before meeting Harry (which also, even if it was true, fuck that slut-shaming BS).
Another absolutely batshit tweet depicted Meghan and Harry as what appears to be wild woodland creatures. I have absolutely no idea what’s going on in that last one, to be quite royally honest with you. In a statement with Buzzfeed News, chief executive at Bot Sentinel, Christopher Bouzy, said they weren’t sure what had driven these people to create such a coordinated hate campaign against her, but, if you ask me, in that last example, it’s absolutely racially-charged.
That cooked woodland tweet I mentioned compares Meghan to a naked woodland beast, while Harry’s sister-in-law Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is described in that same tweet as a wife chosen by Prince William “for her beauty, kindness, intelligence [and] respect for his family.” Literally, fuck right off the pond, you and your rubbish bins for brains.
“Are these people who hate her,” Bouzy said via Buzzfeed News.
“Is it racism? Are they trying to hurt their credibility? Your guess is as good as ours?
“This campaign comes from people who know how to manipulate the algorithmns, manipulate Twitter, stay under the wire to avoid detection and suspension. This level of complexity comes from people who know how to do this stuff, who are paid to do this stuff.”
According to the Washington Post, just four of the 53 main Twitter accounts involved in the coordinated attack on Meghan and Harry were suspended by the platform. A spokesperson for Twitter told Buzzfeed News they were “actively investigating the information and accounts referenced in this report — we will take action on accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.”
