Prince Harry Breaks Silence On Report He And Meghan Markle Are Quitting Social Media

“The truth is, despite its well-documented ills, social media can offer a means of connecting and community, which are vital to us as human beings,” the royal said.

“We will revisit social media when it feels right for us — perhaps when we see more meaningful commitments to change or reform — but right now we’ve thrown much of our energy into learning about this space and how we can help,” he added. 

In the Fast Company interview, the Duke of Sussex was also asked about the online harassment he and Meghan faced in the U.K., which they’ve endured from the very start of their courtship. 

“I was really surprised to witness how my story had been told one way, my wife’s story had been told one way, and then our union sparked something that made the telling of that story very different,” the 36-year-old said. “That false narrative became the mothership for all of the harassment you’re referring to. It wouldn’t have even begun had our story just been told truthfully.”

The Duchess of Sussex, 39, has previously spoken about the “almost unsurvivable” online hate she faced while on maternity leave in 2019. Meghan said she was told she “was the most trolled person in the entire world ― male or female.”  

In addition to personal harassment, Harry spoke about the dangers of disinformation online and how it contributed to the deadly U.S. Capitol riot in Washington on Jan. 6.

“We have seen time and again what happens when the real-world cost of misinformation is disregarded. There is no way to downplay this,” the duke said. “There was a literal attack on democracy in the United States, organized on social media, which is an issue of violent extremism.” 

“We are losing loved ones to conspiracy theories, losing a sense of self because of the barrage of mistruths, and at the largest scale, losing our democracies. The magnitude of this cannot be overstated, as noted even by the defectors who helped build these platforms,” Harry added. 

The couple has continued to speak out against disinformation and online hate during virtual appearances over the last year.

The Sussexes’ new Archewell Foundation is also committed to focusing on online reform, through partnerships with the Archewell Foundation Fund for the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry and the Center for Humane Technology. 

In terms of actions that internet and social media users can take, Meghan has previously offered “one clear, tangible thing” people can do to stop misinformation.