Harry & Meghan, all welcome (aka positive thread, now renamed!)

[Roussette]

Here we are, let's inform, discuss, share and respect.

[OVienna]

I mean - at least the website will get hits? It does seem a worthy cause.

I guess there is some value to 'clickbate'.

[WindsorBlues]

I found Justice Warby's ruling document much easier to follow than Harry's rambling in the Fast Economy article.

[SetPhasersTaeMalkie]

@OVienna

I mean - at least the website will get hits? It does seem a worthy cause.

I guess there is some value to 'clickbate'.

I think it's the general idea. So rather than sending cards and gifts for birthdays, donate to this charity instead. Seems like a really good idea and would draw attention to a smaller or less well known charity.

[KayakingOnDown]

Harry's article read like he had copied bits of critique he'd found from other sources and pasted them together in such a way that didn't make much sense, betraying the fact that he didn't really understand the concepts he was dealing with.

These are big and important issues. There needs to be a wide public discussion on this. But is Harry the person to lead it?

[SetPhasersTaeMalkie]

I think they did the same at their wedding too but there were about six or seven charities to choose from.

[KatherineParr4]

@KayakingOnDown

Harry's article read like he had copied bits of critique he'd found from other sources and pasted them together in such a way that didn't make much sense, betraying the fact that he didn't really understand the concepts he was dealing with.

These are big and important issues. There needs to be a wide public discussion on this. But is Harry the person to lead it?

Assuming it was actually Harry who wrote it. Which seems very much in doubt, particularly with the Americanised spellings.

[YouSayWhat]

Do you think the CEOs know that HaM are going to call them? I worked for a very large PR firm and the thought of the CEO receiving a call like that and being told how to run a social media campaign makes me cringe.

It also reminds me of my father who loves to write complaining letters to The Guardian. They published a few in 1984 but now they block him as he writes (well, emails these days) almost every week.

[ButteryPuffin]

The 'raising awareness' part of this is already in motion, though. People know it's a problem, and organisations like Stop Funding Hate have been operating for some time. Again, it's a question of what the Sussexes are adding to the debate - what concrete ideas or proposals are they bringing? Media regulation is a very complex area and it's when it comes to the crunch that you start to see all the pros and cons of the action that can be taken. You need to get both governments and corporations to agree which is difficult. The opinion piece conveys none of this. It is well meaning enough but there's no depth or expertise.

[alliwantisagoodnightssleep]

Maybe they should be telling their supporters to be kinder on social media! Some of the stuff posted about Kate, the Queen and anyone who doesn’t think they are the second coming is shocking.

They are both hypocrites.

[SetPhasersTaeMalkie]

I think on social media there's a lot of hypocrisy going round.

[EthelMayFergus]

I recommend searching for the 'sussexsquad' on Twitter as mentioned by Serenster. Twitter is fairly nasty, if you're a feminist it's very nasty, yet the 'sussex squad' is some of the nastiest stuff I've seen on Twitter, by Harry and Meghan 'stans'. Maybe they should start their preaching there, or at least acknowledge it.

[OVienna]

I was on Twitter relatively regularly about ten years ago. I have dipped in and out since then, around the Referendum(s) and election times when I 'need' to feel in a crowd living and breathing an ongoing event. I also used to follow Giles Coren and Caitlin Moran and enjoyed their posts. Esther Coren, Giles' wife. There was also a crowd of Mumsnetters there (still is) who were quite fun.

When I have been back in recently to check out certain posters or for certain events I have been shocked by much of the content and how it has changed. "Bottomfeeders" is an understatement. I have seen properly hateful posts in response to not very much at all.

[SunbathingDragon]

I would like to see H&M find the charities and areas they wish to support and stick with them. Perhaps it’s just the way it’s reported, but it comes across that they keep flitting from one to another and they tend to be vogue causes.

[WurraBurra]

A Message to Anyone Connected To Prince Harry either by himself, Sunshine Sachs or the lawyers

Please stay away from the Scientologist.

That is all.

[WurraBurra]

Not just one. All of them.

[Wheresthebeach]

The hypocrisy is mind blowing.

The truly awful things that have been said about Kate and others and they remain quiet as the dead.

Their friends leak personal information to benefit them all the bloody time and their supporters are vicious on Twitter.

I just can't get my head around how they can behave this way.

[JaJaDingDong]

Harry's article read like he had copied bits of critique he'd found from other sources and pasted them together in such a way that didn't make much sense, betraying the fact that he didn't really understand the concepts he was dealing with.

I doubt Harry actually wrote it himself

[DulciUke]

He needs to change speechwriters, whether it is Meghan writing them or someone else. His speeches just come across as lecturing word salad and it is very off putting to many people. The tone always comes off as a bit pompous and phony. (Obviously I'm not speaking for everyone here). He is right in that a lot of social media is toxic--I'm not sure what the solution is outside of just shutting the whole thing down.

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

I’d find Harry’s message more persuasive if the Sussexes themselves were taking the lead in this. But they are absolutely not

Quite so

I'm another who sees the value of the cause, but I just wonder what credibility Harry has to talk about it, given the way he and his wife have treated the family and some of the online comments they apparently tolerate

And sorry, but for me the idea that Harry wrote this himself is risible in the extreme

[Samcro]

The truly awful things that have been said about Kate and others and they remain quiet as the dead.

sorry (melting here) but what was said?

[Samcro]

ignore that. I see what you meant now.

[Roussette]

Puzzled Just curious... you talk of them 'tolerating' the online comments, I just wonder what they are supposed to do?

So their supporters on Twitter are derogatory to those that are on the opposite side... what on earth should H&M do, I really don't know

[Samcro]

Roussette good question.

[meercat23]

They could let it be known that they do not like the nasty comments and that they do not agree with them? I don't mean generally but on sites that are set up specifically to follow them.

[mrscampbellblackagain]

They should say for example in Harry's article that people who support them shouldn't denigrate others in an attempt to do so.

Samcro, Kate is regularly called anorexic, a bad mother, a stepford wife who tolerates her unfaithful husband etc etc. Oh also ugly, wrinkly - and that's just what I have personally seen on twitter underneath the official Royal accounts. They normally #sussexsquad as well.