Kensington Palace staff are spending hours each week moderating sexist and racist comments directed at the Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex, it has been revealed.
Officials claimed that a handful of people have made violent threats towards the two women, while others are targeting ‘rival’ fans for vicious personal abuse.
A source claimed that the palace has blocked certain words from their social media, however ‘some of it is quite serious’.
Speaking to Hello!, who launched the #HelloToKindness campaign in a bid to encourage positivity online, the source said: ‘The Palace has always monitored comments but it’s a hugely time consuming thing.
‘They can block certain words, but some of it is quite serious. Over the course of last year, with hundreds of thousands of comments, there were two or three that were violent threats.
‘You can delete and report and block people and the police have options around particular people. ‘It’s something you have to manage because there’s no other way to control it.’
Neither Kate nor Meghan have individual public social media accounts, with Meghan famously closing her Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts a year ago ahead of her marriage to Prince Harry.
Royal aides stress that the majority of comments are positive, however a source added: ‘A lot of hours are being spent reviewing old material and moderating comments under posts.’
The problem has become such an issue in recent months that the palace have turned to Instagram in a bid to learn all the tools they can to help them tackle the abusive comments.
The social networking company has a team dedicated to helping high profile Instagram followers cope with issues such as these, and particularly around the monitoring of unpleasant and abusive comments.
‘It follows a Kate vs Meghan narrative and some of the worst stuff is between Kate fans and Meghan fans,’ the source added.
‘Arguments about who looks more appropriate, for example, that turn into personal attacks on other users.
‘It’s creating a supercharged atmosphere and everyone can join in, but what are the consequences of this?’
