Royal Family introduce social media guidelines to tackle abusive comments
Written by News on 04/03/2019
New guidelines have been put in place by the Royal Family to block people who post offensive or abusive messages on their social media accounts.
Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace jointly published the guidelines, asking that anyone “engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities” in an attempt to “create a safe environment”.
The popular social media accounts have millions of followers and get thousands of comments every week.
While most are understood to be very positive, there are posts that have been threatening and abusive.
The new guidelines state that comments must not “contain spam, be defamatory of any person, deceive others, be obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory or promote sexually explicit material or violence”.
They must also not “promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.”
Comments could be sent to the police for investigation if they feel it is necessary.
The palace have had moderation tools in place for some time to monitor what users are posting, but the guidelines are a new step to make it clear what they believe is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
The guidelines are not an attempt to control criticism of the Royal Family.
While the palace will not comment directly on why they are launching these guidelines now, it comes after a spike in abusive and threatening comments – with many directed at the Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex.
It is understood the palace are also concerned about the number of royal “fans” abusing each other under the guise of being “Team Meghan” or “Team Kate”.
The Royal Family launched their first Twitter account in 2009.
The younger royals have regularly spoken about the positives and negatives of social media and the impact it has on young people.
The Duke of Cambridge has campaigned against cyber-bulling and accused social media giants of being “on the back foot” when it comes to fighting issues like online bullying, fake news, and hate speech.
(c) Sky News 2019: Royal Family introduce social media guidelines to tackle abusive comments
