Tuesday afternoon, Bot Sentinel released their long-awaited report on their investigation into the social media hate accounts targeting the Duchess of Sussex. Some of the accounts attack both Prince Harry and Meghan, but Meghan has been directly targeted by vile racism, misogyny, lies and a coordinated disinformation campaign for years now. That was one of the big takeaways from Bot Sentinel’s report: the hate campaign IS a campaign, and the people are coordinating with each other and helping each other evade Twitter’s rules. They are not “bots” or random people being paid to tweet random sh-t about Meghan. There are about 83 accounts coordinating with each other to smear and abuse Meghan online. Ellie Hall at Buzzfeed had an interview with Bot Sentinel’s CEO Christopher Bouzy, and here are some highlights:
The report: An analysis of more than 114,000 tweets about the couple has revealed a coordinated campaign of targeted harassment of Meghan on Twitter — and the 83 accounts responsible for approximately 70% of the negative and often hateful content. Twitter analytics service Bot Sentinel released a report examining Twitter activity related to the Sussexes and found that the majority of the hate and misinformation about the couple originated from a small group of accounts whose primary, if not sole, purpose appears to be to tweet negatively about them. Bot Sentinel’s analysis also revealed a level of sophistication and coordination between the accounts, who use their combined 187,631 followers to fuel a campaign of negativity against Harry and Meghan.
Twitter is trying to shut down the accounts: A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that they are “actively investigating the information and accounts referenced in this report — we will take action on accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.”
The anti-Meghan campaign is unlike other disinformation campaigns: Bot Sentinel CEO Christopher Bouzy told BuzzFeed News that this anti-Meghan Twitter campaign is unlike anything he and his team have ever seen before. “There’s no motive,” he said, comparing the anti-Meghan campaign to other disinformation and harassment campaigns on Twitter such as the #StopTheSteal movement to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election or the campaign to remove actor Amber Heard from the upcoming Aquaman sequel as a result of abuse allegations made against her by ex-husband Johnny Depp. “Are these people who hate her? Is it racism? Are they trying to hurt [Harry and Meghan’s] credibility? Your guess is as good as ours.”
Real humans are behind it: Bouzy emphasized that the negative Twitter activity is not fueled by automated bot accounts, but real accounts run by humans. “This campaign comes from people who know how to manipulate the algorithms, manipulate Twitter, stay under the wire to avoid detection and suspension,” he said. “This level of complexity comes from people who know how to do this stuff, who are paid to do this stuff.”
How the accounts evade detection: Bouzy said the users targeting Meghan and Harry are operating “in a more clever way than we normally see.” He said their hateful tweets are mixed in with tweets that do not violate Twitter’s terms of service, making these accounts harder for Bot Sentinel to automatically detect. Bouzy told BuzzFeed News that it’s easier for these single-purpose anti-Sussex accounts to also avoid detection because they pair their negative content about Harry and Meghan that violate the terms of service with positive comments about other members of the royal family, particularly Harry’s brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Many accounts have already been suspended: The report states that 40% of the primary accounts listed have been previously suspended by Twitter, and Bouzy said that most of the primary accounts engage in behavior specifically to avoid suspension, such as making their accounts private or temporarily deactivating them, only to return days later. “What these accounts are doing — they’re really flying under the wire,” Bouzy said. “They’re right at the edge. They’re doing things our technology isn’t going to catch.”
How they operate: “These primary and secondary accounts are pushing [hate and disinformation] out, and then it’s being taken over by organic hate,” Bouzy said. “You have the ringleaders, then the secondary accounts, and then an outside network that also amplifies and pushes a certain narrative.”
Whenever I see a troll in my mentions, I immediately mute or block – I’ve gotten into that habit in recent years and I have no regrets about it. But I have followed some of the pro-Meghan accounts’ attempts to at least keep an eye on some of the hate accounts, and it was a big day when “Murky Meg” was finally suspended from Twitter, as she was one of the ringleader accounts. In Murky’s absence, there has been some kind of power vacuum and that’s all I’m willing to say about that. In my opinion, Bouzy is mostly right: it’s not a like a bot-driven disinformation campaign with political goals or what have you. It’s just regular old racist lunatics who sit on social media all day, talking sh-t about Meghan. Now, I also believe that some of the accounts (not all, but some) are displaying a sophisticated level of coordination. As Bouzy said, “This level of complexity comes from people who know how to do this stuff, who are paid to do this stuff.”
In October 2021, Bot Sentinel Inc. launched an investigation into the negative Twitter activity concentrated on Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Here is what we uncovered…
Download the report here: https://t.co/fNJ9ydqLcc pic.twitter.com/66ZQATpXZl
— Christopher Bouzy (@cbouzy) October 26, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
To me, this is very scary. Last night on BuzzFeed you could see these accounts pop up to discredit the story and the author. I’m sure this is not just limited to Twitter but also to Instagram and other social media. I’m following a pro Sussex account on TikTok and it gets suspended regularly because Meghan haters report it for random things.
These people should be prosecuted.
Also I have new appreciation for the amount of trolls that Kaiser has to block daily to keep this space hate free
It is a scary thing and I think it highlights how those with money and power can pay to influence peoples thoughts and behaviours, in whatever area they want. Whether it’s swaying political opinions, bringing a competitor to their knees, or even revenge on someone they don’t like.
We knew it was happening, and that it happens across all social media platforms, but to have it highlighted like this is something else. To know that these are people who are clearly paid to produce those posts in such smart ways. With the amount of content they were rolling out, I’d bet it might have been multiple people behind each account.
@GraceB- the guy from Bot Sentinel said that (either in the interview with BuzzFeed or on his twitter) – that he thinks there were definitely multiple people behind some of these accounts. There were just too many tweets on any given day on a regular basis, across time zones, etc. So even if you were getting paid for this, and you were tweeting constantly for a certain segment of the day, you had to be getting paid REALLY well to basically tweet non-stop all day every day about Meghan, so its more likely that there were definitely multiple people involved with some accounts.
This is very scary – that there are people out there who have no problem getting paid to do this. And that there are people paying them to do this.
It reminds me of the AT&T/OAN link – OAN wouldn’t be able to exist and share the lies if it wasn’t for AT&T sponsorship. These people probably wouldn’t have the time/resources to do this if someone wasn’t supporting them. Someone needs to follow/expose the money trail.
@GraceB, nicely stated. I try sometimes to get my husband and our (British) friend to care more about this. I explain that even if you consider the royal family minor players on the world stage, these dramas playing out perfectly encapsulate how the rich, powerful, and ruthless manipulate us in countless ways to keep or gain power.
Twitter, Facebook, Quora, BuzzFeed. All part of a very coordinated smear campaign. I hope someone track those accounts and we find the responsible for it. For sure is at least the KG
Really good investigation. It’s only such a pity that it’s no answer who was behind this attack, who is the mindmaster. Hope one day we can see THE names.
I don’t think he can publicly say the names because that goes against the twitter rules
( that’s what someone said) but Twitter is aware of this and he may have given them the names.
Also, it’s clear the royal family ( KP) are paying these people to do this . Especially when his report mentioned how there would be positive comments on the Cambridge’s.
I’m not sure. Is it the royal family or is it tabloid, like the DM? Or could it be someone else entirely?
Yesterday on Instagram @sussexdaily posted a list of primary and secondary accounts who are spreading the vile. It’s unbelievable. Meghan has to be so f*ng strong to withstand the degree of vitriol being systematically directed against her, like syndicated hatred, I can’t even imagine. And especially when she is such a good, kind-hearted and well-meaning person. WTF! I want to know: WHO IS $$ BACKING $$ THIS CAMPAIGN? Whoever it is, they need to be called out and made to pay. Big time.
It would be crazy it any of them were tied back to the Palace. There social media/publicity game is SOOOO bad, it would be amazing if they were savvy enough to think of it.
@Ginger, I feel like this is probably a dumb question, but why wouldn’t the names be allowed on Twitter? Most other people who commit criminal or just disgusting offenses are discussed every day.
Most recently, Brian Laundrie— there were never any criminal charges filed against him, but people were free to discuss him as a suspect, and as a result we all know who he is…why would something like this be different?
Yes, people showed up at his house protesting and harassing the people who lived there, but you know what? I would be ABSOLUTELY FINE with the same thing happening to whoever the people behind the anti-Meghan accounts were. They made a choice to engage in this behavior, and the public has the choice of how to react. They have the right to annoy them with signs that they must face every time they walk out their door, reminding them that people know that they played a role in something horrific, and determined not to let *them* forget it.
There are consequences for your actions, so why should these people be protected and treated differently just because the behavior was online? No, none of them literally strangled Meghan, but they did push her to seriously consider suicide. They should be named & shamed, imo.
He says in the video that these are not regular users. These accounts publish 300 to 400 Tweets per day! That’s not normal behaviour. This is targeted harrasment and based on how much time these accounts spend doing this, it’s their full time job
@ Nina, that’s the scariest and worst part that they have disclosed about the investigation!! How can someone spend their entire day, day after day, actively expressing these hateful comments with such vile words. There are certainly people paid to actively participate which creates more hate and vile by those who aren’t paid.
These accounts, with their primary goal and the utter amount of actual users everyday to commit this vile campaign everyday is upsetting and disturbing to see. I know that a majority of us knew that they were/are actively participating in these campaigns to create and uphold their campaign of hate against Meghan, and Harry in addition to their children, but the level of efforts made to remain under the wire is mind boggling!! Someone is behind this, created a payroll of active users to maintain a constant level of relenting hate.
Let’s hope that when they reveal the source that has created, paid and supported these actors of hate are brought to justice!!
I noticed this exact thing in the Daily Mail comments section as well, when Meghan first came on the scene, say around 2017 onwards. A number of well spoken, incredibly persuasive commenters leaving extremely high numbers of comments, meticulously explaining why Meghan was such a terrible human being (social climber, overly ambitious, liar, fake, pretentious, etc).
I noticed their comments because of how articulate they were, not like the usual DM racist goons, but more like highly trained prosecutors presenting well prepared cases against Meghan. This was top shelf well debuted propaganda.
It felt so unusual that clearly well educated, intelligent people would be spending so much time leaving scores and scores of comments, all day long against her. So one day, I counted the comments in 3 of these accounts over the course of the day and was shocked to see that each account had about 150 – 200 comments each. And not just bot-like comments, but proper engagement – replies and counter-replies.
How can an intelligent, educated, functional human being leave 200 replies a day (for months on end) and still maintain a job, family and lifestyle? So it became clear that this must have been very, very well funded and highly coordinated.
I then noticed that all three accounts I looked up had been created on the same day. (Not to mention that they all had very similar styles of language, vocabulary and writing styles). My guess would be a group of people who work together from the same city, very likely working under the same building (hence the similarity in voice and choice of language – they all had similar epiteths and occasionally, outright insults for her).
All three accounts were producing over 500-600 engaged comments a day, which is how I know it most definitely was more than one individual involved.
Anyway, I got so spooked by the experience and just how tangible and palpable their determination to destroy her was, that I’ve never visited the Daily Mail website since.
Nina, I am a “nobody” on Twitter: I do/follow *mostly* political tweets, some funny stuff, some cute animal stuff 😊 Yet, when I get a new follower, I go to vet them; if I see they’re relatively “new” (in the last year or so) yet have over 50 THOUSAND tweets, I know *something* stinks with this account, and I block immediately. Same with accounts with all the numbers after the name (I was told those are *usually* from a bot farm).
@Bella – that’s interesting and makes sense. And you’re right, the tone of the comments isn’t bot-like, and these people will engage and respond. I’ve noticed on Twitter sometimes several different accounts have the EXACT same response to a certain royal story but if you respond to it, they will each respond differently, so it feels like there is one initial story that they are told to put out there, and then they take it from there.
I’ve been an avid online royal watcher since 1997, and I agree that there’s something rotten in the way all of this chatter on twitter, the DM, and various other forums and blogs is coordinated against H&M. Years ago, there was a LOT of hate directed toward Kate and the other Middletons (online people hated EVERYTHING about her in the beginning), but once they all decided to hate Meghan it seems that Kate and the Middleton’s get a pass. One of the boards I still frequent (merely to pick up gossip about the other royal families that you’ll never see in mainstream American media) got so nasty they had to close down the Sussex topics completely. But instead of rolling their vitriol back onto Kate, the only comments I see praise her and call her gracious and beautiful and all that. And when James got married earlier this year, there was a great deal of fawning–not just about the wedding and the dress itself (which I actually liked! I’m getting married next year and am aiming for the same “posh/sunny vineyard vibes” James and his bride had going on), but all about how “you can tell James really loves her…I hope I find somebody who treats me that way,” which seemed really suspicious, over the top, and unwarranted in my opinion.
On the other hand, that particular message board never felt the need to monitor or close down the boards dedicated to the other royal families, and the discussions in those areas are much more organic. They still hate on Mary from Denmark, still hate Pavlos and his wife, etc. But it seems someone somewhere decided that the Cambridges are off limit to online criticism, while you can just pour it on everybody else. That’s strange and pings my radar.
If you are talking about the forum with the initial RD then I can confirm I saw the same thing. Kate changed from the worst ever to perfect princess within months of confirmation that Meghan was a serious girlfriend. And the moderators clearly supported the anti Meghan comments because it drove away most of the pro Meghan people when the Sussex threads weren’t shut down. Which they were quite often. I saw many try to call out the racist but to no avail.
And yes they still hate Mary of Denmark and some others.
It was a live social experiment happening before our eyes.
And I was on Twitter prior to Meghan arriving and the explosion of pro kate accounts and anti Meghan accounts in 2018 was more than just a coincidence.
I should note that it was at that same time that many would try to come to CB and post anti Meghan stuff, which got shot down. And even now we see certain events bring in the trolls. Without moderation here I can only imagine how bad it would be.
Quora is really bad, too. I don’t go there anymore (even to read serious things, which was my motivation for years), since they started becoming a Meghan hater site. I just checked & now there’s something called “The Duchess Diaries” that is wildly anti-Meghan.
What’s really weird is that each negative comments immediately gets hundreds of upvotes. Obviously, it’s all coordinated. You have to pay .83 cents a month to subscribe to the “Diaries” and read certain comments. What the hell? 66 Contributors
18 subscribers12.7K followers
Then there’s another “space” called The CAMBRIDGES of UK
For people who love Prince William and Duchess Catherine. Their life and kids.
Another space called “The Hypocrites of Sussex.”
I could go on & on, but you get the point. I wonder if these same people are on Twitter.
This “space” is great for rebutting the lies about the Sussexes, but it’s a drop of water in a tidal wave.
https://sussexesfactvsfiction.quora.com/
@Isabella…Yes, l thought initially that Quora was decent but it has been infiltrated.
He said he’s going to be investigating who paid by following the ip info. It’s on his twitter.
How the f can the Cambridge’s pull this off when they can’t even get a pap photo of them at lunch rught? When they can’t get anywhere near this sort of support for whatever shoot the earth bs little willie was promoting? I think it’s Charles. The Cambridge s are a disaster.
@Moxylady – Right? This seems beyond the skills of the Cambridge’s, but at the same time I’m having a hard time understanding who would be this interested in Meghan that they would pay a group of users to just sit on twitter all day trashing her other than someone with some sort of RF ties.
The ones ( or one) that is benefitting the most out of this smear campaign is Kate ( and sometimes William) so, maybe not KP but the Middletons. Carol definitely has connections and uses them.
KP hired people like Simon Case who worked on Brexit& were close to people who were part of the vote leave Brexit campaign which was known for spreading misinformation via bot accounts etc.
And the Telegraph reported in March that KP staff used #freeharry, called him the hostage before the wedding & Tatler reported KP staff calling Meghan names like me-gain- later popularised by social media trolls. So I think there’s some palace involvement for sure- perhaps they coordinated with the press on some of this & then other bad actors got involved because of Meghan as a culture wars symbol.
@MoxyLady – that’s a good point, and I think it works if William completely outsourced this, said to Jason Knauf, “destroy them on social media any way you can” and this is the result; so William doesn’t really “know” what’s going on but he gave the okay. It also gives him some plausible deniability.
This could be what Knauf has over the Cambridges and why he isn’t actually going anywhere.
Kfg, that could prove difficult. A lot of people use VPNs that hide *your* IP and put in another from any/everywhere in the world. I use a VPN for safe browsing (and to be able to stream some Britcoms on my computer 😊), and I’m NOBODY! You can bet some operation this sophisticated will DEFINITELY use VPNs to hide their locations.
While it might be beyond the skill of the Cambridges to do this themselves, there are unfortunately now firms that do this crap. Yes mostly Russian and out of the former USSR (think the “pr firm” who was busted trying to pay tiktokers to spread misinfo about vaccinations). I’m sure Murdoch and his cronies would have been happy to hook them up.
@abritguest-I think it’s a good point that some of KP staff worked on brexit or knew the people that did and could easily outsource this coordinated SM attack.
@becks1- so do you think Knauf will never leave? Technically, he’s supposed to be there till the end of the year, if IRRC? So interesting to see if he does. My dream is for him to take a huge book and interview payout and expose everything. But if they’re paying him, why would he, I guess? Plus NDA’s.
The Cambridges didn’t do this personally, clearly. They only need deep pockets and to give the go ahead. This was executed by well paid, highly skilled professionals.
@Jais – Yes, he’s supposed to be there until the end of the year but I don’t think they’ve hired his replacement yet, have they? You would think if he was actually leaving they would have the replacement on board by this point for training etc.
I do think he will eventually leave, but I think at this point the Cambridges are so indebted to him and he’s so entangled in their dirty deeds that he will never really be “gone”, he’ll be a shadow figure like Fawcett has been for Charles for ages now.
Ugh, @Becks1- he really is the shadowy figure. You’ve also mentioned how often Kate’s phone calls with him are mentioned in the court circular as engagements. How often are those conversations about social media engagement…
And yes @belladupont and @gruey-
I can really see William and Kate seeing the initial results of this attack and then just saying keep it up and for how much should I write the check.
I’d bet a dollar to a donut hole Waity Kaity and Whiny Willy have their grubby paws all over this. I don’t think either of them is smart enough to engineer it, but once the hate train got rolling they were all aboard for the ride.
I went down a twitter rabbit hole and I think I might need a break from it now. I don’t know what would be worse, if this was a paid for campaign of hatred to change opinions; or if the harassment happened organically. Some humans are just vile. Why can’t we all just get along?
@SpaceGeek – I have to admit, there’s a part of me that feels “better” thinking these people are paid, because at least they don’t just hate Meghan for no reason, they’re paid to do it. I mean its still disturbing and scary, but its there. But I think that’s just me reaching for anything to make this situation less dark.
And it doesn’t matter at this point bc they’re stirring up hate with people who aren’t paid.
It reminds me of the movie Mother Night, where Nick Nolte is a Nazi broadcaster who is sending secret messages to the…UK or US, I can’t remember. And there’s a line in it about how he doesn’t get to excuse himself, because he’s part of the reason things got so bad, and the Nazi message wouldn’t have been as widespread or powerful if it weren’t for him, even if he was working as a spy.
I feel kind of the same way – even if someone like Murky Meg was doing this because she was paid, then does it matter at this point, because she’s part of the reason the hate was so widespread and there has been so much hatred and racism aimed at the Sussexes?
Don’t think anyone who has paid attention is surprised. Makes me wonder if we know now where the royal foundation money has been going.
It’s good to see it confirmed by an investigation. Palace should issue a statement since this proves that both Harry and Meghan were targeted. But I’m sure they won’t
I’m sure they won’t either, but they should. William has made statements about being against online bullying, now they learn that his SIL has been the biggest target of that over the past few years? From a KP PR standpoint, this is a perfect opportunity for them to issue a statement condemning this.
They won’t, but they should, and IMO it says a lot that they won’t.
@Nina and Becky- I’ve been thinking the same thing. This is an opportunity for William to start reaching out. I wouldn’t expect him to be sincere, but a statement condemning, blah, blah, etc. There’s no way W&K will be able to visit the US, let alone take it by storm, if they don’t lay some groundwork for meeting H&M.
Then again, if William’s people are behind this, that could invite a whistle-blower. So interesting.
This would be the perfect opportunity for William to repair his own damaged reputation, because he wouldn’t even need to hint that HE did anything wrong. He could make the ENTIRE focus on online bullying as the real villain. He could send an olive branch without ever acknowledging his own part in it? Seems like a win-win for him.
Unless there are ties between William and the online bullying?
KP refuses to delete any negative comments about Harry and Meghan from their feeds, while they delete anything negative about William, Kate, or about his cheating. They’re in on it.
I don’t see why this should be centered as a William redemption arc. He has benefited enormously from the Sussexes being smeared and attacked by the press and these vicious trolls. Why should he be redeemed by bestowing his magnanimous grace upon them now? It’s ridiculous. He’s a POS who reached out to the press with his staff to coordinate a smear campaign and destroy Meghan’s reputation and family ties. His brother was collateral damage and he has demonstrated his pettiness as a person time and time again. What can he possibly say that will repair that? The Sussexes are under no obligation to accept whatever piddling gesture he ever decides to do, which he won’t. He has shown his true self and based on the radio silence of the UK press, there was some involvement of the palace. They coordinated icing out and isolating the Sussexes the way the trolls coordinated attacking them. William and his social X-ray wife can kick rocks and keep faking their way through life. I don’t care what he does.
Not surprised, but still grateful for the investigation and public conformation of what many of us already suspected.
Well, most of us knew or guessed this, but I thought the big takeaways from this were:
1) these are real accounts. they are not bots. It has been too easy to dismiss the hate campaign as being bot-driven, but its not.
2) These are accounts who know what they are doing and they do just enough to avoid the Twitter rules, like they are PAID to do this. So whether they are bots or not (not, in this case), the issue circles back to WHO is paying them?
3) some of these accounts are shared by multiple people, that’s the only way there can be so many tweets on any given day. Imagine that payroll.
4) Finally, I felt this validates so much of what we have been saying about the hate campaign. These people swarm ANYTHING related to Harry and Meghan. They attacked Bot Sentinel and tried to get twitter to remove its account, they attack any person who mentions H&M, anyone who posts anything publicly about them, any person or charity who mentions them. It’s psychotic and disturbing but makes more sense if you consider this is a job to these people.
Agreed Becks. Even though this isn’t bot driven most of the big name Meghan hate accounts used bots ( to at least up their follower numbers) I looked at Murkys one time and she had over 35,000 followers and a bunch were bots that followed other Meghan hate accounts, KP, and a bunch of royal reporters. So, they are definitely all connected. And some of these bots would post hateful things on Meghan but just randomly
MurkyMeg is terrifying and I can’t believe that Twitter gave her a blue check but at least she’s finally removed from that platform at least.
I liked how the Bot Sentinel article/interview discussed how these real accounts knew how to amplify their Twitter audience like you said. It was coordinated and disturbing and definitely professional, someone like MM knew how to use enough real accounts and bots to boost their followers which got them more followers etc.
@Becks
Don’t forget there was a concurrent campaign to boost the Cambridges right at the same time. Unearned praise on social media and consistently buying tons of followers on instagram to outrank the Sussexes. Not to mention the shenanigans like the Flybe jet fiasco or the cocaine fiend uncle’s open attacks on Meghan.
It’s absolutely 100% clear to me that the Cambridges are main/senior protagonists in this coordinated hate campaign. They’ve had a needle’s point focus on destroying her from almost day 1.
Absolutely right, to each point, Becks! This is so horrifying.
And on schedule they are responding with the “what about the anti Cambridge comments” as if any of them are on the same level of this coordinated and constant attack against Meghan.
I saw a couple of those too. “Maybe we need our OWN investigation!!” Puh-leez.
I saw a few of those “Both sides” tweets and you’re right that it’s nowhere near on the same level. Does Kate get mean comments? Yes. Do I think *some* comments go too far for *my* taste? Yes.
But the DIFFERENCE is that there isn’t a coordinated campaign to hate on Kate. There aren’t accounts that tweet out 100s of tweets against Kate every single day. There isn’t a “Murky Kate” account that was given a blue check and literally sells t-shirts and merchandise hating on Meghan. Kate hate is not encouraged by mainstream media reporters like Meghan hate is encouraged by the BM.
It’s not on the same playing field and I’m tired of people acting like terrible comments about Kate (on here or anywhere else) is anywhere near comparable to what Meghan gets from the Daily Mail and other places (which a few posters here tried to do a few weeks ago)
I honestly wonder if they organize some of the truly negative comments about the Cambridges just so they can say this and use that defense. Not all of the negative comments but some. At this point, it would have be part of the the coordinated effort.
The royal family did the same thing. They issued one statement asking people to stop attacking Meghan AND Kate. They couldn’t even acknowledge the racist bullying Meghan was receiving online without ALSO trying to make white girl Kate an equal victim. It’s like interrupting a Black Lives Matter statement with, “but don’t forget how bad white girls have it too.” As if saying “Kate is lazy” is anywhere near the same thing as a racist attack on an intelligent, hard-working biracial woman. That statement from KP was the turning point for me, as it proved what I had only previously suspected about their own racism.
Confirmation of our suspicions, absolutely. And if we follow the money, I am fairly sure that we’ll find the path eventually leads to inside the castle(s).
I do hope it is all laid bare. Taxpayers’ money at work.
guys why are we asking who is paying for this? it’s obviously Cambridges, whether directly or through their proxy the DM
1) the bots post negatively about H&M and positively about the royal family, specifically will and kate
2) will and kate are known to buy fake followers to boost their social media stats *in competition with H&M* – is it so much of a leap to imagine they’d buy bots to attack their enemies? i wonder if they got a package deal lol
3) the daily mail already appears to use bots in their comment sections, so they have the means to be a go-between, but lack a motive to do this on their own. sure they’ll exploit hate for clicks but why pay to smear H&M on other platforms where they don’t earn ad revenue?
it only really benefits the Cambridges to smear and attack H&M on socials, or to pay someone to arrange that for them, and the total hamfisted obviousness of it seems very them
PS no reason for this to be led by other royals – this seems like the behaviour of someone with serious jealously of harry and waaaaay too much time on their hands. say what you like about Charles but he seems like more of an old school bully and a father will never hate his son as much as a miserable, overshadowed brother
Oh I def think its KP – my comment about “who is paying them” was almost more rhetorical. We all know who it is, I want that to be common knowledge at this point though.
To clarify though – these are NOT bots, these are actual accounts with actual people behind them.
@ElleV
We may never know who paid for the campaign as I can’t imagine that any of the financial transactions took place in the UK or that the funds came from a source that is subject to any accounting practices.
I’ll just say that someone saw Meghan as a super-nova threat to the power of the monarchy and acted accordingly, Day 1.
I will say this until I am blue in the face: Meghan’s being half-black made the hate train easier to jump on for some but SOMEONE learned their lesson from the global domination of Diana (that exists to this day) and tried to stop that sh!t well before the wedding. Unlike Diana whose power wasn’t understood immediately, it was clear from get-go that Meghan was going to be Diana to the 5th power.
I admire Diana but Meghan’s being a beautiful American, activist self-made millionaire and marrying the Hot Ging, waving to the crowd and her smile underneath her shiny hair? She lit the UK on FIRE and I when Harry says his fear is history repeating itself? A twitter hate campaign is a nice way to move some mentally unstable person to take care of the monarchy’s problem for them. Its frightening and I hope she never sets foot in the UK (or France, just to safe) again.
@Elle, wasn’t one of the worst offenders in the spreading of misinformation online before the 2016 election a firm named CAMBRIDGE Analytica? Obviously they’re unrelated, but still, the irony.
The anti Meghan accounts showed up at the same time as pro Cambridge accounts. Charles and Camilla were never praised in social media to the same degree so to me it’s obvious that this was coming from KP, likely managed by Jason Knauf because we know he was actively looking to attack Meghan’s character from early on. If only we knew when Toubati was let go because I bet you can trace the boost in social media action (new Twitter accounts and IG bots) with that time period.
@Becks1 – IMHO, this is definitely camp Cambridge and KP. Their work is for William to become the next Monarch. The coordinate hate campaign against Harry and Meghan (mostly Meghan) has worked so well that it is being used to keep Charles, Camilla and even the Queen in line. Remember when most of us commenting on Celebitchy wondered why KP and the Cambridges hired Meghan and Harry’s former social media person? I think he may have been instructive in getting this ball rolling, which allowed the Cambridges to hire companies to execute their disgusting take down of Meghan and Harry. I hope the exposure is thorough and involves prosecuting the offenders for putting the lives of Meghan, Harry and their children in danger.
I reported Kate Middleton and the queen channel on YouTube so many times and the same user keep making new channels with the same name& format
“they pair their negative content about Harry and Meghan that violate the terms of service with positive comments about other members of the royal family, particularly Harry’s brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.”
Well, there you have it: Bill and KKate behind the online white supremacists doing the hard work , as they are behind the bullying accusations and subsequent investigation that tried to taint Meghan´s reputation- and by that I mean they asked Jason to hire some people on the lowdow to give H&M constant online heat, the same way they asked Jason to buy bots to pump up their numbers as to give the impression they are popular.
If there was any doubt in Harry´s mind, this settles it. Methinks it will only be ” hi Will, bye Will” from now on.
PS: you know, this actually makes them look even more pathetic. Not only a 95 years old works harder than they, but even after all this trouble hiring bots and hiring haters to follow Meghan online, Willie and Kkkate STILL get a lot of negative attention online—-not paid, not prompted, spontaneous negative attention.
Plus, Angela Levin follows these accounts. Who knows if she isn’t behind some of them, as she is a “writer,” who already uses her name account to bash Meghan. Seems like she would have time to create fictional Twitter accounts to spew anti-Meghan garbage. Same with Jason who was already outed as having an anti-Kate Insta or Twitter, I can’t remember which one.
What? Jason has an anti Kate insta?
I think they meant to say anti Meghan. Knauf was suspected of being behind the hrhcate Twitter account which was recently suspended. It was very vicious online and always tried to report notable pro Sussex accounts.
Sorry for the confusion; yes I meant to say anti-Meghan account.
Will&Kate/KP/courtiers were not only behind the false bullying allegations but behind the smear campaign as well. There are probably much earlier stories but Eugenie’s? wedding in October of 2018 and the BM trying to make it sound like Meghan grabbed a mic to announce her pregnancy when Eugenie & other family members most likely already knew. The effing bs crying story was November 2018. Meghan’s successful Grenfell cookbook launch was Sept. 2018-Kate not having completed a successful solo project before Meghan was not a good look for Kate.
This may seem Putinesque. Highly doubt he’s involved in this disgusting campaign. It’s scary when there are so many characters to choose from. Does it start with Tominey’s revealing Harry’s girlfriend story or Ruth Style’s DM Straight Outta Compton article? Did the BM/twitter become more vicious after Harry issued his Nov. 2016 statement about the attacks on Meghan? And then Will issued his own very weak statement a few weeks later. This isn’t Murdoch alone, the other major 2 media UK ownerships(the DMGT -Daily Mail & Reach Plc. have been involved in smearing Meghan along with the US’s A360 (formerly AMI) and Dylan Howard owned Empire Media-Dylan Howard used to be with AMI. IBT/Newsweek have done their share. I remember the twitter thread shared here with dots connecting Will/Knauf/Wootton/Christian Jones-Byline Investigates did their own connections too. Dylan Howard can be connected to Christian Jones through Harvey Weinstein. Oddly, that link/story has disappeared.
Another figure not to dismiss is Sir Martin Sorrell. After being pushed out of WPP for questionable behavior and practices (he was also named in a Grenfell Tower lawsuit-may have been dismissed) he formed S4 Capital. The company provides different digital advertising and marketing services. I’m mentioning him because he’s the one that hosted the 35k-50k fundraising dinner in NYC/Manhattan for Will & Kate in 2014.
https://www.stanhopecapital.com/team/sir-martin-sorrell/
Follow the money and the liars. Hopefully, some well deserved justice will be served, and those who’ve spent time discrediting Meghan for simply being an intelligent, charismatic, caring and hard working WOC that breathes & married a man she loves will figuratively have their heads on a spike. For those in the US, stop watching the stations that have the royal nincompoops on. Viewership/ratings matter.
I also want to express my appreciation to the SussexSquad members and their diligence. It matters along with the fundraising campaigns. The harassment campaigns can’t tally the same $$$$$$ unless it’s to their own pocketbooks. I’m not on twitter – but I look. Really enjoy seeing the Squad food day pictures. Amazing cakes & charcuterie boards recently. I’ll ask for a soup day. That’s my big thing with the Empty Bowls group. And, to Celebitchy for fighting the good fight, providing a safe place for people that don’t buy into the hate filled, deranged, mob minded thinking that some places seem to support in regards to the Duke & (Madame)Duchess of Sussex. Which, in America, is not as big as some want to imply.
It seems a little ironic that the DM posted this story in 2019. But they did. Sorry, it’s the DM. Interesting though since they are guilty.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7560665/Investigation-finds-online-smear-campaigns-bought-little-8-post.html
@Agreatreckoning. Yes the Sussexsquad are doing a great job, and they predicted everything that has happened. The following is going from strength to strength. The truth will come out.
I hope they follow the money as it’s likely to flow right back to Kensington Palace & Jason Knauf.
Baring that, I hope the Sussexes legal team is presented with an avenue to start sueing these accounts or even better, they pair up with Christopher Bouzy & the Bot Sentinel team to fund their work. 😈
Is it possible to follow the money and see the actual people behind the accounts? I’m honestly asking bc I don’t know how it works. In my heart of hearts, I want the people behind the smear campaign to be exposed. Can it actually happen using this info or what more would need to be done?
Only if Twitter releases the data, which I doubt they’d do.
I have my doubts. If they’re not that smart, it would be easy to trace IP addresses, find the twitter users, check their banking records and find out who paid them.
However, these Twitter users don’t sound like your average Joe. They’re more than likely hiding their real IP addresses, will have false identities and the money transfer in cryptocurrency or cash. Even then, there’s still a chance they could trace it, but becomes a lot more hard work and will depend on whether they have the resources to pursue it.
These people are operating their accounts as a business, so they’re going to have covered their backs.
At nine this morning Bouzey will be letting us know Twitters official response to this issue. I want to know who’s sponsoring, paying, supporting the racist trolls. Jason Knauff and KP and Clarence House involved?
Think it’s time H&M sic the lawyers on all involved.
Interesting: Posted one hr ago on Bouzy’s account:
Christopher Bouzy @cbouzy 1h
We observed a significant decrease in the activity targeting Meghan and Harry shortly after we published the report. If the activity had been organic, it is highly unlikely we would have witnessed such a sharp decrease in such a short period of time.
And let me be clear, the report is not about a group of accounts who just say “mean things.” They are single-purpose accounts dedicated to creating and disseminating hateful and often fictitious content meant to deceive, and they openly coordinate on and off Twitter.
And this:
Royal Suitor / R.S. Locke @royal_suitor 14h (a blue ck. acct)
83 accounts
114K tweets
188K followers
17 million reach
70% of #HarryAndMeghan hate
Thanks for sharing Jan. That bit about not being a group that says “mean things” needs to be repeated at the top of our lungs.
Wow.
I’d like to see another report – one that shows links between the troll accounts and the royal commentators that make it into the mainstream media.
I’m sure there are a lot of people who have developed a dislike of H&M, like my mom who initially loved them as a couple, who have been influenced by the campaign, but would say that they weren’t because they’re not on social media. They need to see the trail.
Absolutely. These comments from these paid hate accounts have been amplified and spread across all of social media, to the point where people just accept it as fact. Like the whole “they left for privacy” bit or the idea that they left because they didn’t want to do the work, etc. Those things have just been accepted by so many now, even those who don’t actively hate H&M. That’s one of the reasons why I try to be “nice” sometimes on accounts like WaPo or NYT when there is an article about them and people say “but I thought they wanted privacy.” Sometimes those are hate accounts or trolls, and sometimes those are just people who have just heard that repeated so often that its in their head, so I just correct them and move on and some will say “thanks, I genuinely didn’t know that, that’s just what I heard.”
I also think its a huge problem that RRs like Camilla Tominey are given any kind of US platform, since they amplify so much of the social media hate.
I called out GMA on Twitter last night over them giving airtime to those clowns. They have no business reporting royal news to Americans when they are aligned with targeted hate accounts.
@GENEVIEVE . I also have a sister who used to be a Meghan fan, but has since gone the other way because she got convinced and manipulated by all this Meghan hate campaign. What I am so distressed about is that this campaign is successful at convincing other people. My sister and I have made a pact never to talk about Meghan anymore when we see each other lest we get into a fight (because it really makes my blood boil why she was so weak to have been exploited and influenced by these online trolls).
Anyway I am happy that the Cambridges and the British media have been outed as the mastermind of the Meghan hate campaign. Absolutely there is no doubt. IMHO
Your anecdote about your sister is very similar to what I experienced with my mom. In the span of three months, I went from having conversations with mom about the racism Meghan experienced…to her suddenly claiming Meghan is manipulative and using Harry. Ugh.
To Bouzy’s question I think the coordinated accounts were originally meant to sully public favor against Meghan and push her to leave the UK(the megxit hashtag predates their wedding) and have moved to trying to discredit them and destroy their work and working relationships since they left. The way the trolls all swarm the replies of anyone who mentions Harry or Meghan is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Just last month a young woman who worls on vaccine equity was forced to put her account on private for talking about the work coming out of their WHO roundtable. The Invictus Games Choir, which is literally composed of veterans suffering from PTSD, had to delete tweets and temporarily go on private after thanking the Sussexquad for raising money for them. The founder of the 19th who interviewed Meghan last summer said yesterday that for months after her interview with Meghan her mentions were still vile. Similarly, the producer for the NPR morning show Meghan appeared on in June tweeted by how shocked she was by how the British press and trolls went on the attack over lighthearted interview about children’s book.
And the thing is: none of these people i just mentioned have said anything about William and Kate or other members of the RF. They were literally just attacked for working with Harry and Meghan. It’s a very obvious attempt to make working with them a hassle so that nobody will want to work with them but considering all of the new partnerships they have been announcing it has thankfully failed and made more people empathetic as to why the left. The big question is: who is behind this? We probably all have our guesses.
Targeting the invictus choir and others associated with the sussexes is just pure evil.
So the next question is Who is paying them? Are they being paid in tiaras, enquiring minds want to know? This feels like a part of a larger disinformation campaign, Putin style, but why and to what end? Brexit, targeting the EU, targeting the US election, it all feels too coordinated (adjusts tin foil hat)
The Putin-backed campaigns in other countries and on other issues have often focused on fomenting conflict and amplifying extreme views, to make it seem like “regular people” are more angry than they are, hold more extreme views, and are less open to compromise and problem solving. All that gives extremists the sense that they’re not a minority and normalizes divisive incendiary speech, and the habit of viewing people with different views as the enemy… dangerous, untrustworthy, not worthy of respect or human rights. And that stuff increases hate speech, real world violence and can swamp, drown out productive exchange of ideas between real people. And it encourages the
local crazies to go all “might makes right” on everyone – so you get insane loudmouths shouting down their neighbors at local school board meetings over everything … and no actual free public input can happen. It makes democracy chaotic and dangerous, which suits Putin just fine.
Think astroturfing campaigns that swamp local citizens’ rallies and information sharing and stir up the crazies, and discourage regular people from getting involved, or the outside influence in the Brexit,Calexit, Spain/France region-exit (my caffeine-free morning brain can’t remember the region name). And before you know it you have extremist violence supporting loonies like MTG in public office.
With the campaign against Meghan, it may have its root in the same destabilizing forces, but it gets a giant boost from bad-faith actors (BRF and their allies, racists and other bigots) whose interests are served by keeping women, black people, progressive human-rights supporting people (and spare-heirs) in their place and on the defensive.
It’s an extinction burst from white supremicists and monarchists, but it’s especially dangerous because it’s getting a push from deep dark pockets who are experts in spreading disinformation and chaos for their political and financial benefit.
+++++++++++++++++++++ 1
Great comment.
Well said!
Boston-
X100. I would just add that Putin is a student of the west and it’s weaknesses since his KGB days and he has always known that the best way to foment instability is by stirring up white supremacy- this works in the US, UK and pretty much any western country but the US and UK are it’s big targets- the Soviet Union did it and it continues today. The black American duchess entering the royal family would have looked like a golden opportunity to stir ish up shortly after Brexit was passed and Trump entered office. All that would be needed was to start stirring up hate online- KP/BM may have just seen this and run with it, or been more directly involved.
Also, TOB’s rumored Russian gf keeps coming to mind this morning.
Couldn’t agree more, you nailed it.
I don’t think Putin is directly linked to this. That said, whoever is has been following the same playbook that all authoritarians use, including mango Mussolini, and the British version decided to target Meghan. There is really only one person who cares that much to make her a target and remove eyes from his own peccadillos. And his mr Smithers has enough Tory government Brexit connections to set up something like this.
You really nailed it, it is an extinction burst!
Both orange Mussolini and Cambridge Analytica had documented ties to Russia.
As someone said above, Russia, the tories, the royal family and US conservatives are all in each other’s orbit. At this point they all have the same undemocratic aims and they work together when it suits them.
Before anyone says “we knew this, what is the point of this?”, I want to say yes we did because *we’ve* been following this *very* closely since the last 5 years. However, the vast, vast majority of people haven’t and this is who the report is aimed at – not the people who have been saying this for 5 years. And this has already been given an article by WaPo so it’s going to have an even bigger reach. Hopefully this will apply pressure on Twitter to remove these accounts (and they have removed some already).
And I can’t imagine tweeting 100s of tweets a day on a single person. I have my hands full trying to juggle commenting on articles here let alone tweet 100s of times lol.
Yes, good point. WE knew this, but it wasn’t common knowledge for those outside the royal social media sphere and I think its so important that this is getting such national attention at this point. I’m seeing PopSugar (laugh, but they have a following), WaPo, and Forbes all covering this already.
And the part that is kind of cracking me up is that the paid accounts* are flocking to those posts to trash Meghan and the Sussex Squad. Like…..way to prove the point?
*what are we calling them? Paid accounts? Paid trolls?
*Employees of KP or Mummy Carole?
I agree with this. None of this is new information to those following the situation, but to people who aren’t really on Twitter or only causally follow royals stuff, this would be new to them. And the more this floats out to the mainstream the better it is to try and shit it down.
Also I find it interesting that one of the accounts announced she was going on holiday the day before the report was to come out and then returns to brag about saying the report wasn’t a big deal and gloat about getting anti Sussex squad DMs from some of the reporters writing about this. Way to out yourself as far more involved in this smear campaign that reporters seek you out, especially as your account was never found on any list.
If only the list of names and those DMs from RRs would be published in a future report.
Excellent point Sofia! Even if we knew this, now it is proven, there is data behind it and based on that, Twitter can take action or even H&M and their lawyers can take action
Another point the report brought out is the fact that there are multiple people tweeting all day from the same account. I think this is a violation of the Twitter terms of service as well. This is how they are able to flood social media with disinformation and venom.
All the legitimate journalists and news agencies in the US must cover this, this is character assassination. Imagine breaking the story of who is actually behind this. This makes Harry and Meghan’s work against disinformation and misinformation even more heartbreakingly sobering.
I really hope we get so hard evidence on who’s behind these accounts and who’s coordinating this. Follow the money.
I’m thinking it’s either BP or the media outlets that make a f&#$ton of money from stories about the W&K and M&H conflict. I hope the answer is ferreted out and made public.
Lord have they seem slow to realize that these hate accounts backfire and instead reflect badly on fk and ffk doing this to their family member,
Most of us knew this but it’s good that it’s being amplified in the press. I bet we hear nothing about this in the British press because a lot of these accounts are followed by members of the royal rota. It’s where they get their ideas for stories and it’s where they picked up Megxit.
And “Me-Gain.”
@Name: Apparently as I understand it MeGain was from KP staff. Which begs the question how many of these accounts are linked to KP and the royal rota?
The Fail already has a new story up today front and center saying that M&H have isolated themselves, the kids are growing up without family around them, and they will regret it. Deflection.
HA. It’s clear that H&M are okay with their kids growing up without the Windsor family around them. That’s kind of why they moved to California.
The pandemic isolated everyone from their family! Hel-lo.
They have Doria and they have good honest kind friends around them. Family is more than blood and as we have seen Harry and Meghan family with the exception of Doria, are all blood suckers
Oh no the kids aren’t going to grow up around the people who the press said were unhappy when Meghan got pregnant so quickly, who have been silent on abuse they received at days old & who they’ve discussed in a prejudiced manner.
You can tell it’s all a soap opera to the press because one minute they tell us how the palace said Harry was damaged goods, Meghan a narcissistic bully etc, how the Cambridges are glad they & their drama are gone, how they’ve upset the queen especially in Philip’s last days. Next the press push for reconciliation which, if Harry & Meghan were the awful people they claim, nobody would want.
That wretched family if not a safe place for those children. They have Rugby Bro talking openly about beating up their father, and the staff openly mocked Meghan for her suicidal ideation. The ratchets commented on it with glee. The royal family is pack of tarantulas.
Harry & Meghan have isolated themselves from the British Media. That’s it. They have a full life with real friends. Lots of real friends and people that work for them that have have seen Archie & Lili Diana Mount-Batten Windsor in person! The Time magazine people probably have seen the kids. Love that all these people are keeping stuff tight. It would not happen on the the Isle of Salty BM/BRF. H & M’s children are growing up with love not scrutiny.
Please follow the money trail to the big purse.
+1
How sad, had they treated Meghan with some love and respect none of this would have happened. The Sussexit excitement would have died down eventually. But because of insecurities and jealousy they created a big mess thats starting to bite back. I feel we are going into the season where now Chuck and Bill will throw each other under the bus hard.
I hope H&M reach out to this company so that their lawyers can take the research and prosecute – it’s only when that happens will the apple fall from the tree. While am not sure it will lead to Knauff and KP but it will lead to people in the British media who are working with/paying crazy fans to do the grunt work.
I pray they do. I pray they follow the money and lift the lid on who is orchestrating this. I have a gut feeling it leads straight to PWT.
This reminds me of when William and Kate’s Instagram account kept increasing followers each time the Sussexes were on track to surpass them and then miraculously stopped when the Sussexes shut down their account. I do think that some of these accounts are really middle aged racist women with nothing better to do than spread hate. At the same time, I don’t doubt that the Cambridges’ team have a more direct role to play with these hate accounts.
The NYTimes did that story. I hope that same reporter is following up on this. We need independent American journalists investigating who won’t be swayed from publishing the truth in exchange for future access to the Cambridges.
It’s absof*ckinglutely disgusting. Who’s behind it all? Murdoch? Putin? The RF? Trump/ettes? Or a combination of all four? Heads should roll. There should be criminal sanctions levied against these absolutely inhuman wastoids. They’re completely irredeemable, sinister and warped.
It’s Putin. He created the Trump cult. So, Trumpers are actually helping Russia. I’ve lost family members to the cult. So, I’ve looked into it quite a bit.
Here’s a good article that explains why Putin targeted Meghan:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-russia-exploits-american-white-supremacy-over-and-over-again
Naaaahhhh, this “its Putin angle” is just a distraction tactic and I for one am not falling for it, not even one bit. Why would Putin target the Sussexes? They aren’t politicians, had no position of power, and Meg is married to the sixth in line, why would Putin be interested in the Sussexes?
No way. I am not buying Putin at all. Think Occam’s Razor- what makes the most sense is usually the answer. Willy and Kaity are lazy and insecure. Team Sussex is driven and natural. We already know they bought bots on Instagram via the New York Times article. This is 100% the firm’s doing.
Putin? Putin probably doesn’t know or care who Harry and Meghan are. It absolves responsibility for the the heinous racism emanating from the US and UK to always blame Russia. It’s a theory as deranged as the anti-Meghan derangers.
I don’t think Putin would have been targeting Meghan as a duchess in the UK in 2018, and I think blaming everything on Putin is kind of lazy sometimes.
I think its more likely that someone saw what Putin was doing and applied a lot of that to Meghan, but even this report says they have never seen this kind of coordinated attack before for no reason.
To all those saying it can’t be Putin, Putin doesn’t care… it might be Putin. I agree, it is far more likely to be William (although even if it is him, he probably put a few more steps between him and the actual twitter accounts and might have involved someone like Murdoch), but Putin’s whole thing is to f* up institutions and support vile right wingers. It’s not *that* out of left field.
@Betsy I do think it absolutely “could” be Putin, but I think if I were Putin and I wanted to sow discord in the UK and with the royal family, I would go after the heir himself (either Charles or Wililam), not the sixth in heir’s wife. Although it did end up causing a bit of a crisis which maybe was his intended goal all along…..but then why is it still going?
I don’t think its out of left field to say that its Putin and if it ends being him I would vaguely surprised but not shocked, you know? I just think its more likely that its closer to him than that.
This is merely a rumor, but a poster has alluded on here that some of William’s scandals that are kept out of the press aren’t just about affairs, but also shady ties to Russia. If true, that could mean that KP and the Cambridges have some sort of back channel to the Kremlin and have leveraged their well-oiled propaganda machine for the spear campaign.
I think it started with William and his jealousy. Now, did Putin see the divisiveness and join the bandwagon to sow unrest? Maybe. There could be a few different entities at this point, but mostly likely, it began in KP.
The answer “Putin” doesn’t mean Putin decided to run an online campaign against Meghan. It means that part of the Putinist plan to weaken the Western world includes fomenting discontent and weakening cohesiveness via whatever methods present themselves.
Let’s face it, Brexit was Putinism’s first major victory against the West. The Tories and leavers have been able to hide the help they had from Russia and the oligarchs in turning the UK into a haven for their ill-gotten gains. Remember that the timing for Brexit was between the announcement of new EU financial disclosure rules and their implementation. Harry and Meghan began their relationship at about the same time.
So are these people funded or directed by Russia? I doubt it. But the moves that they make are very familiar to anyone who knows about the disinformation campaigns surrounding Brexit and the 2016 US election that we do know had Russian backing. And Meghan and Harry have paid the price.
Obviously Putin didn’t make people racist. But, he suckered in a lot of dumb racists during the Trump era, and I can see him *continuing* disinformation and enflaming those same racists even more, but having to switch to new subject matters now that Trump is out of office. Keeping the racists inflamed will carry over to how they vote in elections.
@Becks1 My money would definitely be on William, or maybe just a a hardcore group of random haters (a few years ago I would never have considered that people would do that; now I’m not so sure), I was just pointing out that to all those who were pooh poohing the idea that Putin would never be involved with something like this – could we, as of five years ago, have ever conceived of the Russian government working with Facebook and the GOP to sway an election? I couldn’t have. This isn’t really beneath him if it accomplishes his aims.
Though again, to be clear: I would guess William.
Murdoch, Putin, RF, Trumpers — all the same. They all feed off each other. Putin is fine with the Torys, he can use them and he can use right wing media, and he can use the royal family, and he can use Trump. They aren’t in opposition. The royals (William, Charles) don’t represent the people or democracy (lol as if).
Putin knows who Harry is. He knows that popular prince fought against Putin’s interests in Afghanistan. And that Harry allows a team from Ukraine to participate in the Invictus Games. A team which includes people who were injured fighting the Russian invasion of their homeland. Other stats have shown 20 percent of the negative bot activity about Meghan comes through Russian servers. So yes, Putin could be involved.
SAME. All I want for Christmas is for the firm to be outed as the source of these comments/bots. Looks like Willy’s chickens are coming home to roost. And I hope he is panicking about it.
I wish this hadn’t happened to Meghan (and Harry) but since it did, I, too hope that William is outed as the responsible party.
A lot of reputable American publications are sharing this story but none from the UK. The royal reporters are silent. Wonder why?
they likely participated in it
Bingo.
They are the mastermind.
Waiting for an RR to say “well, this is similar to what Sussex Squad does to the D&D of Cambridge, where’s that investigation hmmmm??”
There’s a rumor that the British media is working on a report targeting the Sussex Squad.
The Sussex Squad is about being fans of Meghan. The Derangers are about hating Meghan. There’s the difference. Sussex Squad is not posting hundreds of times every day about how much they hate the Cambridge s.
@kalana exactly!
I can definitely see major media interests being part of this, as payback to H&M for cutting them off. The campaign may not have originally begun with them, but I could certainly see them joining forces at some point. Another tentacle of the “invisible contract”, which binds them and the RF…
I see you, Carol!
I see you, Jason!
The fact that Kp , ch and bp did nothing about any of this abuse and harassment and hate , tells me you are so right
I know we are reducing our social media footprint but let’s put this article on our feed.
I’m convinced more than ever now it’s a blessing that the Sussex children are not titled as yet even though it is their right like the white royals. This proven massive targeted campaign right here is why people unalive themselves. And if I’m not wrong, Harry’s army friend and his family were also harassed.
His army friend was indeed targeted and I suspect that the reason he and his family up and moved to America was to escape that. I think we have no idea just how much Harry and Megan’s friends have suffered at the hands of the British media.
You are correct Nyro. Harry’s army friend came out and said that he moved his family to America to get away from the British vipers that call themselves the “press.” It’s the reason so many British actors and singers move to the US too, beyond just for professional opportunities.
Jason Knauf. All roads lead back to him.
Is Jason using his own cash to fund this? Who is powerful enough to get a show like GMB to keep interviewing a loser like Toxic Tom? Are the chickens finally flying home to roost?
Royal Foundation money. This is where the Hub cookbook money would have gone had Meghan not protected it.
“Organic hate” whew. That’s a loaded combination of words, and genuinely frightening.
Next I want o see something similar be done in YouTube because the hate and the amount of videos against Meghan and also Harry is equally if not more disturbing. I saw this morning that even that witch of “Lady Colin Campbell” has a channel posting videos and just promoting that hate. These people are making money from the hate and it needs to be stopped.
@Carito. That’s true YouTube is a cesspool of Meghan hate. They profit from slandering her; even these so-called fortune tellers and shamans are having a windfall for badmouthing Meghan. YouTube should be investigated for slander and defamation. And users who perpetuate this should be permanently banned.
You just have to tell youtube algorithm what you like. If you hit don’t recommend channel on these channels, it will stop appearing.
I only have pro Meghan vids appearing on my feed now, but yes…it is ridiculous. There is a tarot reader reading about Meghan not being Archie´s mother, etc…
The first time I saw “Murky Meg”, I was on Youtube looking for video clips about Harry and Meghan. I happened to click on this particular video and which opened to a white youngish woman (20s-40s) spewing hateful bile about the Sussexes. She was speaking in a British accent and she was mixing her hateful venomous rant with high praises of the Cambridges. I just chalked it to some Cambs sycophant etc. Later, I was on here and posters mentioned Murky Meg and what that person was doing on twitter, I went back to look for the clip where the woman was personally speaking and showing her face but I could no longer find it. There are tons of them with her voice but I couldn’t find the one with her showing her face. All this just to say that I believe Bouzy, these are not bots but real people operating a smear/character assassination campaign against the Sussexes.
Can you imagine living a life so devoid of meaning and purpose that you spend all your time attacking someone who has done absolutely nothing but marry the man she loves? It’s disgusting.
MAC
They live for this! It gets them high. The sense of purpose is there and they feel fulfilled. Also, getting paid must be nice to do what you love.
The hate in their hearts isn’t felt. They believe they’re crusaders.
A terrible and meaningless existence to everyone, but themselves.
IF they are getting paid or believe their employer is somehow in the Cambridge’s circle… well, I would bet that means the world to them.
I wonder if it’s more than just hate. That she is also being paid to do this by certain parties.
They are absolutely monetizing upon H&M hate. The cruelty is the point.
I’ve seen really bad Sussex-hating videos on Facebook too. I don’t think it violates any rules, but who knows.
She also touts she bought a house off the proceeds of her hate.
That’s crazy no way that they are trolling for free even if they are many psychopaths no way that hundreds of people can agree together to sit behind a computer tweeting all day they are paid and they are coordinated just like the tabloids piers and the British Press only the royals can be behind this.. I’m laughing at the Putin posts Meghan never mentioned Putin in any way she isn’t Alexei Navalny it’s the palace Charles& William
The reason I found celebitchy was because I could not believe the torrent of abuse and hate I was seeing in the msn and social media. It was so overwhelming that it prompted me to search for positive news about M&H. I am glad I did as my suspicions were proved correct with this report. Let’s hope that this is the beginning of the end of this racket and that heads roll.
Same, I somehow stumbled upon Celebitchy, thankfully.
I was thrilled that someone finally put some hard numbers behind the incessant online smearing and avalanche of hate towards Meghan. Anyone who says anything remotely positive about her has their feed infected by these deranged idiots. I’ve been seeing for years now accusations of Meghan being a “yacht” girl and “being passed around” powerful men, fake pregnancies and other vile lies. They are out to ruin her reputation and get her to commit suicide, no question.
Agreed, it’s really sad. Saying things like that about her not only puts her at risk in the ways you mentioned, but can also incite violence against her from men (and others) hearing it. Some people doing this to Meghan want those kinds of outcomes, while for other people it’s just a matter of feeling that they shouldn’t have to deal with the inconvenience of thinking about something like that.
I’ve completely cut off one relative who said vile things about Meghan clearly gleaned and repeated by all media. I’m not particularly a Sussex fan just that level of hate and misinformation, lies, makes me feel physically sick
It really is like Qanon. Spewing conspiracy theory nonsense about Meghan, Michelle, Hillary, and Kamala is a red flag that someone frequents the most hateful parts of the internet.
Some of the accounts mentioned in the report, Angela levin follows & engages with. She boosts their conspiracies about Meghan not being pregnant etc. She was just at Clarence House for an event Camilla was doing. I have no idea why as she’s not part of the rota. I wonder if she has another book coming?
Even if Clarence House doesn’t know about her disgusting social media feed,Angela is all over British tv& print press saying awful things about Harry & Meghan which I find it hard to believe the firm hasn’t seen. I understand having to work with the press to some extent as a public body but it is truly a firm not a family as you would never see me being as cosy with people slandering my family as Charles constantly is.
Angela is good friends with someone that works for Charles. That is how she got her interview with Harry. Charles made Harry do it. She is close to someone at Clarence House.
she seems like a huge liability. She’s really unhinged, and she openly posts to hate sites. If the Cambridges come to the US (I don’t think they will at the end of the day–too thin-skinned), I want them to be asked about it.
I follow a lot of Sussex Squad members on Twitter and used to interact a lot with them (before work killed my internet time) and I was doxxed by one of the now suspended accounts. There is definitely someone paying these people because that level of dedication is not free.
@Lauren, “that level of dedication is not free” is definitely going in my notepad of best quotes—so useful for so many situations, and this one spectacularly so!
The fact that this coordination extends across social media platforms, and even finds it’s way to the comment sections of virtually every article that mentions Meghan, gives me little hope for improvement. I’ve never seen the internet hate a person like it hated Meghan at the peaks of the smear campaign. The SussexRoyal IG comment section, in particular, was reliably horrible. I’m glad this is finally coming to light with data, but SO much damage has already been done.
That to me points to the coordination. Who has that much time and energy to devote to seeking out every article or mention of Meghan across the internet unless they are receiving *something* in return? We know there are professional troll farms in Russia and also in Nigeria and Ghana that did a lot of disinformation during the election. Is this who is spewing the hate against Meghan? And why? Who is behind this?
It would make sense if they have the same name on YT and profit from views on their YT. That is indeed a motivation. I’m curious how many followers and views the biggest channel on YT about Meghan has and what that translates to in income. But apparently some accounts have Twitter posts all day meaning it must be more than one person, that is quite odd.
Mslam there is very cheap software that scans the internet for any mention of particular word, in this case Meghan and it can show you all the websites where it was mentioned. So it would be easy for them to just go to those websites and troll.
I similar software it at work to measure brand awareness of my company.
Again, this just confirms that these people are no amateurs or mere enthusiasts
@mariahlee, I disagree so much damage has been done. I’ll be honest and say your post has the passive-aggressive qualities of someone who wants people to think one thing is true when it isn’t. Show me otherwise. Christopher Bouzy’s comments & investigation is giving me confidence. Damage is a matter of perception & knowledge. I went through it years ago. Someone tried damaging me a long time ago. A handful believed it at that time. The naysayers were outweighed by thinking, insightful people. The person propagating the stories back then is shunned now-no one wants to talk to them. Yet, for a number of years now, I’ve had people try to explain their “reasons” for being on the wrong side of truth. Yep, I had receipts too. My honor is intact. The damage done is to those who’ve actually behaved dishonorably. Meghan & Harry have honor.
Who benefits from such a campaign? That’s the basic question that people should be asking. Who benefits, and in what way?
It’s a damning question that has just one answer. It’s pretty obvious.
Will-di Amin! He wanted Meghan gone by any means necessary
The Murdoch media group, aren’t they the ones who were involved in phone hacking? They are at war with the Sussexes in their publications, this could be another part of that campaign
Exactly. This is a complicated, expensive and extensive operation.
Whoever is backing this is having to pay a lot of money over years for this to continue to happen so they have to have a motive and the means. There’s only one person who fits that bill and that person is William. At a push, I’d also allow for Carole perhaps via uncle Gary since we know she is absolutely desperate for her daughter to become Queen and not be overshadowed but either way, it comes back to the same thing.
Definitely Kate/ Carol. Kate is the one that gets the most praise ( William gets praise as well but not like Kate) Kate is really benefiting from this smear campaign. This is the best press she has ever had ( at the expense of Meghan) Right before this smear campaign she was getting criticism from the British media for being lazy and dull.
The media companies also gain financially. The recent Facebook whistleblower has clearly shown that negative engagement brings the biggest money to social media (and other media has long had the phrase “if it bleeds, it leads”). The snowball effect of negativity creates a money avalanche for the platforms.
From a pure business standpoint, comment sections bring in money because of clicks and ad content, and if you can get a comment war going, people keep coming back over and over.
Yes, it’s mutually beneficial, isn’t it, for the pro-hate media organizations and the people paying the bill.
I’ve always wondered if the same thing is happening on the Daily Mail’s comment section. The sheer volume of negative comments against Harry & Meghan are just totally out of proportion with comments on any other story on the site. A real story about something truly awful that happened, like a mass shooting or earthquake, gets a few hundred comments. But a story about Harry riding his bike on the beach will get something like 30,000 mostly negative comments.
It’s become something of an object of fascination for me, because the stories that these “people” comments on at the DM are so banal and yet they receive SO MANY comments. It doesn’t make sense unless someone is getting paid to do it.
This! The sheer number of hate comments against them on that site is just astounding.
Oh yeah, they are in the DM comments no doubt. It’s not just twitter and Instagram. It’s: Facebook, tumblr, quora, Reddit, Lipstick Alley,
YouTube, etc. They are everywhere. They try it here but Kaiser and others are good at deleting their comments. Someone has spent A LOT of money to pay these people to hate. Murky quit her job and bought a new house
( according to her) her YouTube videos were not monetized so she got money somewhere.
That is gross.
Lipstick Alley is overrun with middle aged white women blackfishing to claim their hatred of Meghan isn’t racist. Lots of psychos posting ‘round the clock. The mods and owners are sus too.
Another prominent anti-Meghan/pro-Kate YouTube account, According2Taz, has made money off merchandise. She’s careful to mix in content about her real life and on her Twitter account, too. I checked her Twitter just now and sure enough she’s taking some time away for herself. A number of comments are in support of her and…Murky Meg. The deep hatred wrapped in neon pink graphics and the chirpy delivery on YT (I watched one video) is revolting.
It’s good to have confirmation about a coordinated, targeted campaign against Meghan because it honestly was not making sense in its intense, unrelenting vitriol and enormity. Their tentacles are *everywhere*. May the dismantling continue and names are named (we can hope).
Lipstick alley? I thought Sussex squad members go there.. but there’s a gossip forum that’s really really bad called Tattle life filled with crazy trolls they post non stop endlessly on months end
There was a video of a guy who used to be one of the top people at daily fail; he said the Big Majority of the comments and the like ratios are fake. They hire people or sometimes have an automatic system to Manipulate the numbers and comments in favor of the story they are telling. Well, if you go to the Daily fail when they post a new news article, you will get to see it happen live. They will have 50 downvotes on 3 comments within 5 minutes. If you go back and look at the article within an hour, especially if it’s about Harry and Meghan, it will Have thousands of comments and downvotes in a short span.
Yes, there is definitely something fishy about the Daily Fail comments, they need investigating.
We been new. It’s time to go after the hate mongers on YouTube and IG. They are literally pro fitting off of churning out constant Meghan hate content. And there’s a particularly dangerous person on IG called “Taking Meg Down a Peg” who is covertly ruling up her audience to “do something” about Meghan. If you read enough of her content, it becomes clear that she wants to drive someone to a violent act against Meghan.
delete comment
Just when I find myself wishing that M&H had a social media presence, I’m reminded why they don’t and today more than before I’m glad that they don’t.
I had one small run in with these deranged people. I was feeling pissy so responded to a particularly hateful comment. The person went 0 to 60 with vitriol. And kept responding and responding. At one point, my notification timeline filled up with at least 60 replies from this person – as I was watching more and more kept coming in, seconds apart. But they had blocked me so I couldn’t see what they were saying. Given the number and speed of replies, I’m now curious if it was more than one person.
I’m so glad this is finally coming out on a mainstream level with some data to back it up. The further this information gets the better and maybe will spur even more people (Ronan farrow where are you) into the harassment of Meghan and Harry.
I hope people keep sharing the articles. All of us following can see this but for the person who isn’t into Royal family gossip this will be an eye opener for them. I have a friend who isn’t online often as her job is very busy. She saw this buzz feed article and was shocked. She knew Meghan from suits, saw the wedding but other than that hasn’t paid much attention as her work hasn’t allowed. So the Oprah interview and this were eye opening for her. She is definitely not a fan of the RF now.
Great work. Next stop should be Quora.
Quora is terrible on all fronts, fandons etc.
I mean The NY Times already exposed the Cambridges for using bots to compete on Instagram. Are they really above paying for this as well?
I can’t even imagine what kind of sad sacks wake up every morning and rush to the computer to repeat the same tired old criticisms day in and day out — and to actually locate other losers to coordinate with. It can’t pay that much and ultimately what does it accomplish ? The target appears to be thriving .
“It can’t pay that much”.
On the contrary, I bet it pays extremely well. As I mentioned above, some of the people who started the hate campaign in the Daily Mail comments caught my eye specificly for being incredibly eloquent and persuasive in their arguments. Think a prosecutors closing argument. Articulate, controlled, well composed and persuasive. Top shelf stuff. Whoever was behind it was paying highly trained people, not the usual DM trash.
I imagine it’s like paying for the best PR you can afford, expecting them to fortify your reputation on all grounds, online, offline, social media, with the papers, etc. The only difference in this case is you are paying top shelf money for them to pulverize the competiton’s reputation on all those platforms and hopefully leave no trace to you. And they succeeded didn’t they? In the UK at least.
Now William wants to go after them in America as well. Hopefully, he’ll find that he’s finally bitten off more than he can chew. (Although with those hefty gnashers of his, that’s a bit of a bold statement).
oh dear, and without a trace of irony
To them, it’s just something to make money easily they don’t have to show their face or their name put on decent cloths or leave the house to get the money they don’t have to have a resume or qualifications
During the early stages of a divorce, a woman well known to me hired a professional to do a forensic audit. The amount of information out there proves you can run but not hide. The money trail will eventually be found. Takes time and perseverance.
This makes me so sad, angry and mad for her. She was pregnant through so much of this abuse. She lost a baby because of this, and to this day it continues. I hope they find whoever these people are and punish them to the full extent of the law.
@Bella – so true what you said about the language. There’s one blackfishing account on twitter which posts vile comments about Meghan. They use the same language and phrases as one of her biggest haters.
The BRF and the BM are afraid of a US led investigation.
This case should be investigated at the level of the CIA or FBI. Social media is used as a weapon to target people. In this case a high profile American citizen. Even legislators in Congress should be interested in this casestudy to force the social media giants to take more responsibility and make social media safe for all. This is unacceptable!
What they did to meghan and by estention Harry, and continue doing is dishuman all with the silence/blessing of the british royal family. The british royal family could have stopped this mess long time ago but they refused to, why?
Because they are a bunch of mediocre, hateful racists who can’t stand that Meghan did their job better than they did.
This is the truth. She did her job really well, and they still hate her for it. The fact that literally one phone call would shut this down and they refuse to do so tells me everything I need to know. My only hope is that karma will come to the BRF in my lifetime so I can watch them go down in flames. What they’re doing is absolutely disgusting.
It’s amazing that Twitter (and any social media site, really) doesn’t have some sort of checks and balances. If an account is sending 200-300+ tweets in a day, that’s NOT normal and should be flagged because it’s obviously some sort of bot account. I can see FB not giving a crap, but Twitter has at least been reactive at the spread of misinformation.
Twitter isn’t held to the journalistic standards you mention (lol, who is?) because it doesn’t fit the current legal definitions we have for news outlets. The law has to change.
We have been talking about this here for years and to find out that it is 83 (or so) accounts is surprising – I truly believed it was fewer “main” accounts, all working together, following each other, but then creating (a made-up term I use) “dummy” accounts that just re-tweet the “mains”, in a coordinated way. The dummy accounts didn’t seem to follow the accounts they re-tweeted, so I thought that they just searched “Sussex” every 3rd day and found gems to push into the algorithm.
My job involves investigations and I know zero about IT so all I can add to this discussion is what I saw which is:
-the word “harlot” over and over (not part of our vernacular & implies the user is old)
-white men pretending to be black women, anti-Sussex (no way women would use the words they used)
-all accounts, and I mean every anti-Sussex account I saw, posted random “thank you” posts to Kate, using pictures taken over the years, sometimes confusingly pregnant Kate pics (when she wasn’t pregnant, leading to comments like, “Is she pregnant”?)
-iHeart Media US radio stations posted the same pictures of Kate (even though she is not a singer, an American, or a celebrity (by our standards) within minutes of each other on random days https://twitter.com/kiss959/status/1376543055864549379?s=20 and https://twitter.com/1071KISSFM/status/1376543064483840001?s=20 So someone is paying iHeart media too.
through my work I am forced to engage on Twitter. I get a lot of harassment and hate emails, and it’s 95% from right wing. what I’ve done, and I suggest if anyone is on Twitter and wants to help limit these campaigns do same, is set it so I can only see replies and notifications from people who have verified their account via email or phone. Check date of creation. Report their tweets and account if their timeline looks like benign tweets sandwiched between hate.
I can’t vet all of my followers but I will block and report trolls when I see them and sometimes, if warranted with clear deliberate lies, I hide their replies so their propaganda doesn’t get spread via my account.
I suspect this paid campaign came from same channel as trump’s paid campaigns, and that yes, people charged with elevating Bill and Kate are behind it.
My heart breaks for MM.
I am reminded that stories on meghan had a lot of post on Making money. Don’t see these advertisements anymore. I believe people were being hired at those times. Recruitment was probably taking place under our very noses, and would explain a lot.
I dont believe willie and khate directly involve in these hate campaigns just because they are stupid, unimaginative, lazy as hell and cheapskate too.
But, i do believe they work with an agency that paying for these by promising them something back in the future.
Charles and camilla involve in this too, they tried to clean up camilla image but unfortunately, people still remember what they did to Diana. How many parties had they held for the medias and journalist everytime BM smears the sussexess.
Charles definitely spent a lot of money to clean up Camilla’s image. And when the Crown came out and people were tweeting “Diana Forever” under Clarence House tweets they immediately turned the comments off.
Nothing like that was done for Harry and Meghan. Horrible, racist tweets that included death threats were fine but not “Diana forever” Same for William. People would leave a rose emoji and they would get blocked. But not a damn thing was done for Meghan. It’s clear who sanctioned this smear campaign.
The royals did absolutely nothing to stop this. Nothing. No wonder Harry and Meghan left.
Why are all of these new names attempting to deflect to the Russians. I find that strange, misdirection maybe???.
I agree with you. I’m Like what? I think some on this site are in sheep’s clothing.
Chuck has a lot of ties to Putin, makes sense to have the Russian bot farms involved to keep his hands clean .
I mean, the Russian connection is actually even worse so hats off to Bill and Kate defenders for being that stupid.
Bill and Kate and Chuck use Brexit affiliated (Russia connection) firms to do their dirty work. The British monarchy is paying Russia to harm its own family.
In what world is this okay. It’s not. It’s so much worse than Kate being a mean girl. It means Kate and Bill and Chuck are so petty and jealous that they would align with an enemy – and enemy of democracy!- just to harm Meghan. A member of their own family, mother of their nieces and nephews and grandkids.
Seems awfully similar to what was done to Diana.
easy now, it isn’t like they’ve aligned themselves with China — or maybe they have, seems the Chinese have pulled out of the COP since the Queen isn’t coming. That must be it.
This has Jason Knauf’s dirty little fingerprints all over it. First, he was the one who concocted the bullying allegations against Meghan WHILE he was working as Communications Director for the Sussexes. How back-stabby is that!? He forwarded the accusations to Samantha Carruthers, Head of HR at BP and who just happens to be headquartered at Clarence House.
Then, Knauf moved into running the Lamebridge’s foundation but quit 2 months after BP hired an independent law firm to look into his accusations that Meghan bullied palace staff. That was a totally chicken-sh*t move on his part to evade being questioned. Finally, the 2 BP employees who accused Meghan of bullying have rescinded their claims.
Interesting that since he decided to resign at the end of the year, supposedly to follow his husband in a new job *somewhere* he hasn’t been seen or heard from AT ALL. Which begs the question…what exactly is he doing? Whatever it is it’s highly secret which would lead one to suspect he’s continued working with the Cambridges trashing Meghan and Harry.
@Jaded, Knauf seems to have been doing Earthshot for William. When Kate and Will strolled up the green carpet on Earthshot Night, the first person in line to greet them was Jason Knauf. Some of the Rota tweeted pics identifying Kate, Will and Jason together–Kate was doing her expressive hand gesture talking as she usually does.
Jason wouldn’t be the first to greet them at Earthshot Night unless he was in charge from Will’s end of things. Because if someone else was in charge, I’d think they’d shove their own face front and center once the big night occurred and the cameras came out. I don’t think Jason is really going anywhere, unless Will decides that Earthshot’s reception and engagement on social media wasn’t what he wanted and he needs someone to blame and decides it’s Jason’s fault.
I’m grateful this is finally being called out with data and it’s getting amplified in the media. I hope other journalists pick it up and dig deeper, especially the interaction between many of these hate accounts and Royal reporters, many of whom follow and interact with these trolls. Also, we all have a strong hunch the palace is behind some of this and use manipulative techniques similar to what Cambridge Analytica did with Brexit. Also, it’s way more than 83. I don’t think Twitter will do much about it and many of these accounts are still up and active. A major hate account that was suspended was removed not for their hateful content but because of copyright violation. Meghan hate is profitable and drives traffic on the site. I know some Sussex fans want them back on social media but I honestly don’t see why they would want to. I wouldn’t if I were them. Meanwhile, I am going through this troll list and blocking everyone on it and those they interact with. But I’m not expecting much positive change from this frankly, we too polarized. However I’m glad more people are aware of it and getting hip to the game and the BS from the royal press and BRF.
This is such a hydra headed monster. If the 83 accounts are banished, others will be created to thwart whatever new algorithm put in place. All of the regular people will remain convinced of whatever hateful position they had been swayed to, it’s not like they will have new eyes to long-held positions.
I agree with your hydra comment. That only works if Twitter stays on top of it, which we know they won’t. I’m actually mildly surprised they haven’t given Trump his account back yet (he’s on there under a pseudonym I’m positive)
I once got in a Twitfit with a deranger. They told me they hoped I died from the cancer I had in my Twitbio and twitter established they didn’t break any guidelines or policies.
We knew this, but wow the effort and time to try to hurt this woman. Jeez US
I was going to just say “no shit there’s a harassment campaign”, but after pulling my head out of my ass I realized that this could actually mark a turning point on how the Sussexes are viewed by the general public. So many people have been unknowingly swayed by Twitter trolls and the tabloids into believing that their version of Meghan – the gold-digging, home-wrecking jezebel – is the truth.
Take my stepmother, for instance. She’s Indian, a distinguished professional in her field, and a very kind and smart person. She also likes to keep up with magazines like Hello! Canada and other tabloids to see the latest Royal fashions. And somewhere along the line, she started to hate Meghan. Her hate isn’t on the level of the truly deranged, but she genuinely believes what those magazines push about Meghan’s character. This is a woman who has experienced racism, who has a biracial daughter of her own now, and she still bought the narrative hook-line-and-sinker.
If it comes out that this concentrated effort is being paid for by someone with a vested interest in smearing the Sussexes, I really do think that a public reckoning and re-evaluation could be at hand. And if it’s truly one of the Royal houses funding this, as many of us suspect, then I think it could actually topple the RF.
Black people know all too well that non-black ethnic groups who may experience discrimination themselves are all too willing to engage in anti-blackness, so I’m not particularly surprised about this.
The bizarre thing to me is Murky Meg was publicly doxxed. Her real name, address etc … is known to the police. Why wasn’t any kind of legal action taken against her for inciting hate crimes? P.S. I see her YouTube channel is still up with 85.4 thousand subscribers and videos getting well over 110 000 views. What is wrong with people that they even watch this kind of s***
Murky does have her followers but it’s pretty easy to up views on videos. A band I used to follow would want their fans to constantly refresh the page to up the views and there is software out there that can do that. Murky would buy bots, I’m sure she has software that up the views on her videos. Anything on social media can be manipulated, that includes YouTube.
Yes, I remember that. As a poster said above, she is white and British. I remember being surprised that she worked in the health field, in billing or something. Anyway, what stood out to me was that she was not ashamed of bullying and lying about Meghan – she did defended it. This was several years ago when I would read the DF in hopes they would correct the lies. Innocent times, lol.
YouTube should do an analysis of some of the contents on their site and clean house .
One YouTuber who has a pro royal channel started out fairly supportive of H&M , then at some point, the YouTuber took a trip to London, came back flush in cash, redecorating the house, new furniture, “art” work and the tone of the coverage of H&M started changing. He started throwing shade, criticism, repeating all the trash from the DM and others, and had a total meltdown in which he said Meghan should have stayed and put up with it. So yes, I totally believe people are paid, either monetary or in the case of certain reporters with access.
It sounds like they have a script that they study and they say the same things over and over again. And keep saying she’s not a royal and so on. Really awful that the royals did nothing to stop this.
Yes. If you go on the Buzzfeed article comments, you’ll see hoards of them parroting the exact same line but in different ways. What about “the Sugars” (i.e. Sussex fans) harassing and targeting the Cambridges?? What about them saying mean and nasty things about the Cambridges and their kids? A few them are even going as far as to insist that there’s no WAY the hate campaign against Meghan was anywhere near as bad or as co-ordinated as the hate campaign against the Sussexes. Some of them were insisting that the Sussex Squad was getting paid by Meghan and Harry to do all of these things.
If all of this smacks of projection, it’s bc it is. I saw some of the screencaps shared by the more hateful accounts, and one of them was bleating about how Meghan was evil for going to a party that George Soros attended, bc didn’t she know what he did to the Bank of England? These idiots are racist, anti semitic scumbags. It’s disgusting how their hate has been allowed to go on unchecked for so long.
From that ‘sugars’ comment you can tell they are new to the royal watching arena. Only came online to start a paid campaign against Meghan c. 2016.
The term ‘sugars’ didn’t originate as a label for Harry and Meghan supporters. It is a term that came 10+ years ago from the ‘RD’ forum mentioned above. It was a criticism of another forum that (formerly) didn’t allow discussions using tabloid sources and stopped attacks on other posters.
The conversation was forced, for a time, to be mostly positive. From that, the RD posters referred to the posters on that original forum as ‘sugars’ because everything they wrote was ‘sweet’.
Trite, sickening and pathetic wow
Neither Jason, Carol or Gary have the deep pockets and wide ranging influence to pull this off. Only left to wonder; which Murdoch is it?
But RR has deep pockets
What if it turned out to be Charles and Camilla demonizing Meghan to reduce criticism of Camilla.
Will and Kate bought all those bots for their Instagram so it could be them.
W&K absolutely have the funds – the taxpayers.
This is depressing and unsurprising. It’s heartbreaking how unsurprising it is. I’m glad Meghan and Harry have found a strong support and just disengaged entirely from social media.
Like yes I’m a Meghan fan but it’s not about how great I think she is. It is just profoundly wrong and a violation of basic human rights.
It is William and the Royal Rota.
I wonder if the British and Australian media are also on the take. I remember reading Daniela Elser before and I found her articles fair about Meghan . But she recently had a 360 degrees turnaround and has been publishing hateful articles about Meghan. I don’t click on her articles anymore.
Hating Meghan has become a cottage industry . Who’s the financier? Eyes are on the Royal Family, most especially on The Other Brother.
Hmm. Honestly, I don’t think this campaign was actually instigated at the behest of the Cambridges or the royals. Likewise, I don’t think it was Putin, or Trump, or any of the usual suspects. I think the real truth is much more sinister and frightening than all that.
There is a real movement afoot to destroy democracy and sow the seeds of hate. The actual pockets behind these sorts of campaigns are people and billionaires whose names we don’t actually know. These are people with their own political agendas, who are deeply unhappy and alarmed at the rise of progressive movements around the world, bc they see it as a threat to their wealth and standing. These are not people who make a habit of becoming well known. They stay quiet, bc they don’t want to draw attention to themselves and the things they are funding.
How many of us, without looking it up, can name the person at the head of Cambridge Analytica? Or the person funding Breitbart? Putin did not create those entities, and neither did Trump. How many of us knew who the Koch brothers were before their activities became public knowledge? How about the guy from Brooklyn who, it turned out, was the one who started the whole moral panic about “Shariah law” taking over the United States? Or the people at the head of the PR firm who crafted the global harassment campaign against George Soros for the sake of Viktor Orban in Hungary?
These people don’t put themselves in the spotlight, bc they don’t want to get caught. If you follow the money, it wouldn’t lead to the Cambridges. It will lead to the person with the deep pockets and a vested interest in destroying democracy in Britain. Everyone else is just a distraction. People like Trump and Putin and BoJo and the Brexiteers are pawns for the evil rich who jump into the same boat as them bc they see a payday.
Why did whoever it was fund the harassment campaign against Meghan? Because Meghan was an easy figure to use to symbolize all the things that the right hates about the progressive left. She was an easy figure to polarize people around to foment a culture war. The long term goal for whoever it is behind this is to dismantle progressive movements and democracy, not for the sake of Putin or Murdoch, but for their own selfish greed. They have everything to gain from destroying a progressive and free society.
They are just using Meghan because they seized on the fact that she can be an easy target. She’s a woman, biracial, beautiful, and married a prince, and they knew she was fast becoming an icon for those of us who do ascribe to more progressive social/political ideals. They saw that her mere existence was enough to piss off the tens of thousands of bitter, angry women around the world, who carry an enormous amount of hate in their hearts, who can’t stand the fact that a black, biracial woman took their spot, because they can’t imagine the idea of a black, biracial woman being better than them at something. They think the only way for someone like Meghan to get anywhere is to be a narcissistic social climber, bc they think there is no other way for a black woman to succeed in this world. The hate was already there, from the very beginning. Someone saw that, saw an opportunity, and poured gasoline onto the fire, and here we are.
I’m sure, if the money is ever followed, that people will find it’s some obscure PR firm working for some rich billionaire whose name no one even knows right now. They will undoubtedly have ties to the Tories and the right wing in the UK, probably will hobknob in the same circle as the Cambs. But I’d be careful to make a direct link between the two bc I don’t think that exists. The BRF does not get their hands dirty. They outsource the dirty work to their minions, who then can be reliably trusted to take the fall for their shit. That’s the same thing that’s going to happen here too, ultimately.
This right here.
I really could not understand the constant hate for a couple who has left the Uk and resettled in the US-this online trolling of the couple especially Meghan has been vicious and scary-now I see the dots and how this campaign works-the people responsible for doing this will be found out-all I have to say is why did you do this-they are no threat to anyone since they no longer work for the FIRM-they are living their everyday lives and providing for themselves and their children-this seems like bullying using harassing or stalking methods-this is why regulation of these tech companies is coming.
I work in digital marketing, specifically paid ads. A good portion of traffic from Twitter specifically is from bots. We can track it through to certain hits at odd times of days and countries. It’s a cesspool even for marketers!
The collective bullying Meghan has suffered at the hands of the mob who stalk her every move would send a lot of other women straight over a cliff. She’s probably one of the strongest women I’ve heard of. Harry, too, has shown incredible strength. I’m SO glad they left Britain for a safer/saner place to live.
Great report but this sadly doesn’t scratch the surface of the problem. I hope he or other US/Int media do more in depth investigation into this particularly pinpointing where it originates which will help uncover who is funding this. I hope he also looks into the “black-fishing” or e- blackface where these clearly white users keep using black avatars to give them a pass to post vile racist things about meghan.
Hmmm, so that happens .
They don’t need ip really. Under the surface the big social media companies track such things as hardware id, browser cookies and not just what network or up the user was logged in on.
They can see if an account has been used on a device and what others are used on it and just connect it all that way.
Harry and Meghan asked Twitter for help against the troll, Twitter refused. Even their quote above shows they will do nothing. None of the paid hate posters are violating Twitter rules, therefore Twitter will do nothing. They will not allow the investigation in to their databases.
I don’t but it’s Putin either. I think people on both sides of the pond have just become accustomed to divisiveness and pitting one side against the other, and this is just another thing they can satisfy their cold little hearts with.