Huge swathes of the internet have become a field of remembrance following the death of Queen Elizabeth.
The British monarchy's multimillion-dollar landowning apparatus is typified by bare and black. Buckingham Palace officials wrote about the queen's health in the morning and said she died at the ripe old age of 96.
The news was about to drop when the broadcasters wore black. As soon as it became official, the official social media sites were all watching. Immediately after the official announcement, practically all websites associated with the royal family went into mourning mode.
The main website displays a black page about the death of the queen. The king and queen will return to london tomorrow.
The website shares a black page and says they are down while they make "appropriate changes."
Some websites are down as well. The online store for the royal collection is down. The Royal Collection Trust website has a black screen with a picture of a monarch. The official website for the Prince of Wales is also down.
The only exception to this is the official site for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and his wife, who are also referred to as the "Harrys". The site doesn't mention their grandmother's passing, and seems to have been outside of the official preparation for Queen Elizabeth's death. There is a mourning page on the UK Prince of Wales website.
British royal lines of communication aren't the only ones. According to The Guardian, this was part of the plan. A footman in mourning clothes pins a black-edged notice to the gate after the top royal passes and after the prime minister is contacted. The radio alert transmission system of the British Broadcasting Corporation will have been activated. The Royal about to snuff it alarm is referred to as RATS. We can see the black death mask version of the website now.
The last UK to die was George VI. "London Bridge" is the code name for Elizabeth II's death.
The protocol is so well-established that you can tell immediately where the radio broadcast took place.
The royal family has not been keeping up with the latest developments in tech. Instead of riding in her own carriage to celebrate her 70 years of rule in June, Elizabeth stuck a video clip of a movie. Prince Charles promoted his car that runs on surplus wine and cheese, as well as ethically-sourced fuel and clean running cars.
At the best of times, the idea of combining the stiff-upper-lippedness of British aristocracy with modern technology feels anachronistic. It took less than a day for the tweets to drop out. Charles, who has not been given the chance to stretch the royal crowns, put out a statement on the royal family's website.
The news of the queen's death traveled quickly. Within an hour of the official notice from the monarchy, both the passed queen and the new king were added to the encyclopedia.
With days of mourning and funerals coming, we can expect this internet graveyard to be around for a long time.
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