Meghan Markle and Prince Harry back groups calling for a Facebook boycott

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been working behind the scenes urging top executives across the world to back groups and desert Facebook.

According to reports, Harry and Meghan have spoken with a number of organisations leading the Stop Hate for Profit campaign, which urges businesses to pause advertising on the platform over the social network’s apparent failure to do more to remove hate speech. They are said to be supporting American civil rights groups calling for “structural changes to the online world” and “urgent and pressing need” for reform

After the death of George Floyd, whose killing in May sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the world, the couple had conversations with groups including the NAACP, Color of Change, and Anti-Defamation League.

These revolved around how online platforms have created the conditions for hatred, bigotry, radicalism, and violence to grow and spread, a source working closely with the couple on their new organisation said.

Mark Zuckerberg has faced a backlash after Facebook didn’t take down a post by Donald Trump which declared: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Facebook has been accused of allowing the spread of far-right hate speech and misinformation for years.