Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, disclosed today at the RE:WIRED conference that he had emailed Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO, prior to the Capitol Riots on January 6, to warn him that his platform "would allow a coup to take place." The email was sent the previous day and it was received on January 6. I have not heard from him since.
Twitter declined to comment. The incident shows how serious the Duke of Sussex takes media manipulation and misinformation. It's personal for him. He said that he learned early on that publishing's incentives are not always aligned with truth. This is especially true in the UK, where profit and purpose often get mixed up. He added that they had succeeded in turning fact-based news into opinion based gossip with disastrous consequences. This is a story I know all too well. "I lost my mother to self-manufactured cruelty to rabidness. I know this story all too well. I want to make sure that my children don't suffer the same fate."
Harry spoke as part a panel on misinformation moderated by Steven Levy, WIRED editor-at large. Renee DiResta was the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory. Rashad Robinson was a cochair of the Aspen Commission on Information Disorder, president of Color Of Change.
How can the early internet ideals of truth, democracy and justice become so distorted? How can we fix it?
DiResta says that misinformation has been around for a long time. "Misinformation has always existed," says DiResta. "What's new now is how it spreads and how fast it spreads. And the way that each person takes part in moving it from their community to other communities." These "bespoke realities", which DiResta describes as places where people congregate with others who are like-minded, have led to the creation DiResta calls "bespoke reality".
These insular communities are particularly vulnerable to "ampliganda", a term DiResta invented to describe how social media has transformed users into content creators and content disseminators. This often leads to amplifying content that is offensive, "because that's what's being pushed in the feed."
Robinson speaks out about the social justice implications. He says that injustice, inequality, and all of these things are not untoward, as a car accident. Robinson said that these platforms profiteering from hate and fear drove the false narratives surrounding the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and the advancements of voter suppression techniques during the run-up to the election. Robinson stated that there are a number of self-regulated businesses. He also said that the Aspen Commission on Information Disorder, to which he, DiResta and Prince Harry belong, is currently working on recommendations for reducing harm and increasing transparency.
Prince Harry said that there are both reasons to be worried and optimistic about media discourse's future. Everyone benefits when these platforms are removed from harm, but it won't happen without the collaboration of the media ecosystem and social media engineers as well as conscientious advertisers. Prince Harry stated that this is not about cutting the plug. "This is about cleaning it up so that everyone can go to work, can visit these communities, both online and offline, and be accepted, regardless of who they are, their beliefs, or what they believe. But we must have a shared reality."
Updated at 8:30 ET on 11/09/2021: This story has been updated with more information from the panel.
Watch the RE:WIRED conference at WIRED.com.
Here are more great WIRED stories
