Cyberbullies and trolls beware, Britain’s royal family does not want you on their accounts — and they’re ready to take action.
Kensington Palace and Clarence House unveiled social media guidelines amid concerns in the palace regarding the rapidly growing number of online threats against Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton.
The guidelines, released on Monday, aim to, “help create a safe environment on all social media channels run by The Royal Family, Clarence House and Kensington Palace.”
Under the new rules, the palace says they reserve the right to, “hide or delete comments made on our channels,” adding that they may also, “block users who do not follow these guidelines.”
Any comments containing “obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory” language will be removed from the post.
Comments promoting “discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age,” as well as “sexually explicit material or violence,” will also be taken down and blocked.
To make matters more serious, the royal family is not afraid to get the law involved if users take their comments too far. Kensington Palace warned any user threatening the duchesses — or any member of the royal family — that they will, “send any comments we deem appropriate to law enforcement authorities for investigation as we feel necessary or is required by law.”
Back in January, it was revealed that palace staff was overwhelmed and deeply concerned about the “violent threats” being made on their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter profiles against Meghan and Kate, especially in the time since their rumored feud began to attract media attention.Staff were spending hours each week dealing with the hundreds of thousands of racist and sexist comments directed toward the wives of Prince William and Prince Harry.
They reportedly turned to Instagram directly for help in addressing the matter.
As one palace source told Hello Magazine, “It follows a Kate vs. Meghan narrative and some of the worst stuff is between Kate fans and Meghan fans.”
“Arguments about who looks more appropriate, for example, that turn into personal attacks on other users. It’s creating a supercharged atmosphere and everyone can join in, but what are the consequences of this?”