Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Were Targets Of Twitter Hate Crime

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been targets of a coordinated hate crime campaign on Twitter that potentially reached an estimated 17 million users.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were primarily targeted by 83 accounts that were behind 70% of the harassments, according to a report by Twitter analytics provider Bot Sentinel.

"We used Twitter accounts without friends or followers during our research, and after viewing two hate accounts, Twitter's algorithm began suggesting numerous hate accounts,” Bot Sentinel revealed in the report.

According to The Washington Post, some of the 114,000 analyzed tweets used coded racist language and Meghan, who is biracial, was the subject of about 80% of those harassing messages.

"On multiple occasions, Twitter recommended we follow these hate accounts,” the report added. "It is our opinion the accounts included in this report are violating Twitter's rules on platform manipulation and spam, abuse/harassment, and publishing private information."

The report also revealed that the hate crime was exacerbated by coordinated efforts, suggesting the interactions between the accounts were planned to increase the tweet’s visibility.

Of all the accounts responsible for the hate crimes against Markle, 55 were identified as primary hate accounts and 28 as secondary hate accounts, meaning the latter would amplify the tweets created by the primary accounts.

Of the 55 primary accounts, only four were suspended for violating the platform’s policies, a Twitter spokesperson told the Post.