Royal family cracks down on cyberbullies targeting Meghan Markle

Britain’s royal family is waging war against cyberbullies amid a recent uptick in racist comments targeting Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle since her pregnancy announcement in the fall.

Kensington Palace staff are devoting more resources to deleting hateful comments about Markle, 37, and blocking abusive Twitter and Instagram accounts, CNN reported Thursday. They are even employing software to filter out the n-word, as well as gun and knife emojis, the outlet reported.

Last week, the royal family issued a set of guidelines to “help create a safe environment on all social media channels run by The Royal Family, Clarence House and Kensington Palace.”

Under the new rules, the palace says they reserve the right to, “hide or delete comments made on our channels,” adding that they may also, “block users who do not follow these guidelines.”

Meanwhile, the advocacy group Hope Not Hate analyzed more than 5,000 tweets including the most common anti-Meghan hashtags, revealing that a tight-knit group of accounts is to blame for the posts, CNN reported. Twenty accounts, according to the report, were responsible for most of the tweets, which included anti-Meghan hashtags, pictures and memes.

The Twitter bios of these accounts often included the hashtags #Megxit, #Charlatanduchess, in addition to #Brexit and #MAGA, according to the report.

Twitter has since suspended a few of those accounts.

Back in January, it was revealed that palace staff was overwhelmed and deeply concerned “violent threats on their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter profiles against Meghan and Kate – especially since rumors of a feud between the two began to swirl around.

Staff spent hours each week dealing with the hundreds of thousands of racist and sexist comments directed toward the wives of Prince William and Prince Harry.

They reportedly turned to Instagram directly for help in addressing the matter.

“It follows a Kate vs. Meghan narrative and some of the worst stuff is between Kate fans and Meghan fans,” one palace source told Hello Magazine at the time.

“Arguments about who looks more appropriate, for example, that turn into personal attacks on other users. It’s creating a supercharged atmosphere and everyone can join in, but what are the consequences of this?”