Prince Harry says he tipped Twitter on the platform’s role in the Capitol attack

Prince Harry said on Tuesday that he had warned Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey by email that the social network was being used to provoke political unrest in the US capital, the day before pro-Donald Trump protesters invade the seat of the US parliament in Washington.

The Briton’s statement was given on an online panel on disinformation sponsored by Wired magazine. He has sought to establish himself as a spokesman for the issue, criticizing the position of social media platforms in combating hate speech on the internet as well.

“Jack [Dorsey] and I were exchanging emails before Jan. 6 when I warned him that his platform was allowing a coup to be staged,” he said. “The email was sent the day before [do ataque ao Capitólio], then it all happened and I never heard from him again.”

Wanted by the Associated Press agency, which reported Harry’s report, Twitter did not comment.

At the time of the invasion, which culminated in the death of five people, Donald Trump, then president and already defeated in the elections, made several publications on social networks alleging fraud in the election, which was never proven.

Trump’s accusations are seen as one of the main drivers of the invasion of the Capitol, but the platforms were also accused of not acting, in their algorithms, to stop the hate speech and disinformation that stimulate this type of attack. The view of US congressmen is that companies prioritize growth and profits over public safety.

Days after the attack on Parliament, Trump had his Twitter account permanently banned “due to the risk of further incitement to violence”. Since then, he has been fighting in court to get his profile back.

Harry also accused other platforms, such as Facebook, of hosting misinformation about Covid-19, affecting “billions of people”, and about climate change.

According to the AP, the British prince also attacked YouTube, saying that many videos that disseminate incorrect information about the coronavirus were not censored, despite violating the site’s own policies.

“And worse, they reached users through the recommendation tool in YouTube’s own algorithm, rather than anything the user was actually looking for,” he said. “It really shows that [essas desinformações] can be stopped, but it also shows that they [redes sociais] they didn’t want to stop because it affects their bottom line.”

At the event, Harry called the disinformation a global humanitarian crisis. “I felt the effects of it personally for many years, and now I’m seeing it happen globally.”

Without going into details, the prince criticized the term ‘Megxit’, used by the British press to refer to his and his wife, Meghan Markle’s decision to no longer represent royalty. “The term is misogynistic, and it was created by a troll, amplified by royal correspondents, and it grew into mainstream media,” he said.

In September, a report by The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Facebook’s algorithm change, announced in January 2018, increased misinformation, violence and aggressive content on the social network. Upon discovering the impact of the new tool, he still couldn’t resist solving the problem.

In 2018, already immersed in controversy about the potential damage to users’ mental health and the spread of false news, the company said that the purpose of changing the algorithm was to increase interactions between family and friends and reduce passive consumption, which involved content journalistic.

The report states that this was not the only reason, since at the time, Facebook would be facing a period of low interactions, which would explain the company’s inaction regarding the research findings.

The text was part of the so-called Facebook Papers, internal reports sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and provided to the US Congress by the lawyers of Frances Haugen, a former employee of the company. THE sheet it is part of the consortium of media vehicles that had access to these papers, which were reviewed by lawyers and had portions hidden.