Meghan Markle on social media hate: 'It's nothing, it's cruel'

Meghan Markle spoke candidly about the harms and toxicity of social media during a panel at SXSW in Austin on Friday, recalling the hate she received from online commenters, particularly while pregnant with her two children.

“I'm distancing myself from it right now just for my own well-being,” Markle told the panel, which also included Katie Couric, Brooke Shields and Nancy Wang Yuen. “But the biggest amount of bullying and abuse I experienced on social media and online was when I was pregnant with Archie and Lily. You think about that, to really wrap your head around why people would be so hateful. It's not flattering, it's harsh.”

Markle, speaking on International Women's Day, discussed the need for reform from social platforms, pointing in particular to female executives at these companies. She also expressed concern about the negativity she sees especially from other women online.

“This [panel] broadcast on one of these platforms, people will have access to all that brilliance and insight,” Markle said, appearing to refer to YouTube, which streamed the speech live. He added, “At the same time it's a platform that has a lot of hate and rhetoric and incentives for people to create pages where they can create very inflammatory comments and conspiracy theories that can have a terribly negative effect on someone's mental health. physical safety”.

“There are women who are at the highest executive level who are great champions of women and work in these spaces and yet they let this behavior run rampant,” Markle continued. “At a certain point they have to put the dos behind the words and make changes at the systemic level. We have forgotten our humanity. I understand that a lot of money is being made, but even if they are making dollars, it doesn't make sense.”

Markle's comments come at a time of increased scrutiny of big tech and social media companies, particularly over misinformation and the negative impact on mental health for young users.

Shields and Couric echoed Markle's comments, with Shields stressing the need for change for young women online. “Social media didn't exist when all the vitriol was hurled at me and my mother. If it was social media, it might have blown me apart,” Shields said. “We have to make sure we look right behind us and highlight these young women who want to cancel that message and only go in the positive direction. There is no function in negativity.”

Couric similarly called out major tech platforms, questioning whether they will make major changes to combat harmful content.

“I sense in the flickering a real rebellion of people saying 'enough.' These tech companies are not going to do much,” he said. “It's clear that their substance is far more important than the mental health of American children.”