Royal Family Cracks Down on Social Media Trolls

The Palace announced new social media guidelines following claims that Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton are feuding

The royal family is taking a stance against social media trolls.

In a rare statement made Monday, Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace published guidelines for engaging with the royals via their official channels. 

"The aim of our social media channels is to create an environment where our community can engage safely in debate and is free to make comments, questions and suggestions," the statement read. "We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities."

According to the guidelines, posts by the public must not "contain spam, be defamatory of any person, deceive others, be obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory or promote sexually explicit material or violence." They must also not promote "discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age."

In addition, the posts must follow the social networks' official terms and refrain from being "off-topic, irrelevant or unintelligible." What's more, comments on the royals' channels must not contain any advertising or promotion for any services.

If social media users fail to follow these guidelines, the royal family reserves the right to hide or delete their post, as well as block the offenders.

"We also reserve the right to send any comments we deem appropriate to law enforcement authorities for investigation as we feel necessary or is required by law," the statement concluded.

While the reasoning behind the guidelines was not revealed, the announcement came after reports started spreading that Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton were feuding and royal admirers began to take sides. The Palace denounced such allegations, including a report claiming Kate told Meghan not to berate her staff.

"This never happened," the Palace stated. 

UK magazine Hello! even launched a campaign called #HelloToKindness to promote positivity online and prevent the public from posting hurtful comments about the duchesses.