The online persecution of the Princess of Wales is one of the ugliest spectacles of our time. For months, an unholy alliance of crackpot conspiracy theorists has been using the Internet to harass Kate and her young family.
This motley crew of anti-Kate trolls has been raising cruel speculation about her health and whereabouts. They have invaded social media sites to push feverish and flagrantly fact-free theories about Her Royal Highness.
Is she really sick? Or is she hiding? She may have abandoned life in the Palace after a fight with William.
Kate felt forced to explain herself and posted a video message revealing that she had been diagnosed with cancer. The princess was a portrait of grace and self-control.
All garbage. All stupid. All of this increases the burden on the Welsh.
There are other, more vile theories, often compounded by inaccurate stories in the mainstream foreign press that lack the decorum of the British media. In fact, Spanish newspapers published erroneous and unfounded reports last week.
Amid reports that Kate is “considering” appearing on the balcony at Saturday’s Trooping the Color, the cruelty of such misinformation is mind-boggling.
Who in their right mind would spend their days promoting hurtful rumors about a young mother diagnosed with cancer? Why would anyone make it a hobby to mock a poor mother whose only “crime” is taking time to recover from surgery and illness?
The fact is that Kate’s trolling betrays moral rot. This has been going on since January, when it was announced that she would undergo abdominal surgery.
Crucially, that news should have meant that his medical privacy would be respected. But the abuse has continued ever since, epitomized, in particular, by the insane reaction to a charming photograph of Kate and her children that was published to mark Mother’s Day.
Kate’s admission that she had altered the image in a minor way (something everyone does in the age of selfies) was seized upon as proof, yes, proof (!), by the librashop Columbos that the royals are hiding something .
To everyone’s embarrassment, Kate felt forced to explain herself and posted a video message revealing that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
The princess was a portrait of grace and self-control. It was a “big shock,” she said calmly, but “I’m fine and I feel stronger every day.” Yet for all her stoicism, there was something sad about the video, which seemed almost like a hostage statement, made under pressure, not from armed terrorists, but from demented trolls.
There was a medieval feel, as if a woman had been dragged into the public square, shamed by an unforgiving crowd into confessing her illness to strange, wide-eyed onlookers. A forced conversion to the cult of self-revelation.
Even the video was inevitably presented by a twisted minority as proof that something was wrong. “It’s not really her,” Loons said online. ‘She is AI. She’s a body double…’
Kate’s trolling is more than just another online frenzy. For years, social media platforms have amplified the potential for bullying, abuse, and sexual exploitation. But his treatment raises pressing questions about society.
Prince William is reportedly desperate over his wife’s harassment.
For starters, it shines a harsh light on a scale of Internet addiction that is increasingly dragging us into a vortex of antisocial and immoral behavior.
If we witnessed such egregious behavior in a pub, for example, we would react to stop it. Why then do we tolerate such harassment online? It benefits no one to pretend that vile trolls are just a modern version of bar boozers. Trolling is not an extension of the human experience, it is a rejection of it.
The Internet distances us from the institutions and social connections that for millennia have helped keep us sane and good.
Family, friends, real-life socializing, and all the other bonding habits developed over centuries—these things kept us grounded. Now, with only a flickering screen for company, people are left to their own solitary devices in a virtual world of non-stop nonsense. The princess’s treatment exposes the threat that Internet culture poses to civilization itself. Online weirdos can be seen and heard by thousands, maybe millions. Only with the power of their fingers, they can spread their bitter nonsense to the world.
And yet these “broadcasters” are free from the rules and etiquette that govern books, television, and newspapers. Kate haters can say whatever they want, whenever they want, without consequences. And all under the cloak of anonymity.
As a society, we must urgently address this evil. I am convinced that if everyone had to prove who they are before they could post on social media, trolling would evaporate overnight.
Kate became the target of a shocking stream of malevolence that drips hourly from the Internet.
Of course, it is not simple. We are often told that online anonymity is essential to freedom of expression. That without this cloak of invisibility, people would not feel safe to denounce government corruption or stand up to ruthless rulers.
That may very well be true, at least in part. However, it cannot be denied that in many societies, including our own, the use of false identities is being exploited for the purposes of intimidation and harassment. Anonymity has become the fetid trench from which antisocial cowards fire their invectives against public figures, degrading public life for all of us. It would be a good start if Silicon Valley billionaires – and our own political classes – would at least address the problem and recognize the potentially catastrophic downsides of allowing people to hide behind a mask.
We may live in an era of 24/7 access to the inner lives of celebrities. It’s a world where it’s normal to talk openly about mental struggles, for people to write memoirs about their emotional difficulties and post on social media about life’s trials and tribulations.
In that context, when Kate failed to comply with those behaviors and instead gracefully retreated from the public spotlight to deal with a very serious illness and care for her young family, she became the target of a shocking stream of malevolence dripping . every hour from the Internet.
The truth is that we should all be deeply concerned about the way the toxic, anti-social impulse of the Internet age undermines civilized values and the barbaric fad of anonymous bullying. If we fail to put an end to this, it will not only be bad for the Welsh, it will be bad for Britain itself.
Prince William is reportedly desperate over his wife’s harassment. It could well be. But he should remember that there is a groundswell of normal, decent people who are on his side.