Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Reportedly 'Beefed up Security' After Social Media Hatestorm

The British royal family reportedly 'beefed up' security in response to the racist hate messages [...]

The British royal family reportedly "beefed up" security in response to the racist hate messages the family has seen since Meghan Markle married Prince Harry last year.

"The Royal Family is forced to be monitoring their social media feeds 24/7 because of all of the racist hate Opens a New Window. that Meghan has been receiving," a palace insider told Radar Online Thursday. "It has become a great problem."

The source continued, "It is a good thing that the royal family does not allow personal social media accounts. But because of this these racists are coming for them on their public social media, which is meant to give updates on the entire family."

The source claims the family is "on edge right now," so the Duke and Duchess of Sussex "beefed up security on them specifically."

"This was not something she ever even thought about when joining the royal family," the source said.

Radar Online's report follows a CNN report on the racist online abuse Markle has faced. According to CNN, Kensington Palace staff is now spending more resources on deleting comments and blocking abusive tweets. They have even used software to block out the n-word and violent emojis.

The advocacy group Hope Not Hate told CNN it discovered 20 accounts were behind about 70 percent of 5,000 tweets using common anti-Markle hashtags like #Megxit and #Charlatanduchess.

The source's comments come the same week Kensington Palace shared "social media community guidelines" for how members of the public should interact with the family on social media.

"These guidelines are in place to help create a safe environment on all social media channels run by The Royal Family, Clarence House and Kensington Palace. The aim of our social media channels is to create an environment where our community can engage safely in debate and is free to make comments, questions and suggestions," the statement reads.

It continues, "We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities. In order to help create this safe environment we have set out some guidelines which apply to any engagement with us or other members of the community on any of our social media channels."

One of the guidelines for engaging with the royal family's social media channels asks people to not "Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age."

The royal family's relationship with social media has been limited, with Princess Eugenie regarded as the highest-ranking member of the family to use her own Instagram account. It was not until Thursday that Queen Elizabeth II shared her first Instagram post on the royal family's main Instagram page.

The Queen marked her visit to London's Science Museum by sharing a letter computer innovator Charles Babbage wrote to her great-great-grandfather Prince Albert and Queen Victoria in 1843. She signed the caption "Elizabeth R."

"Today, I had the pleasure of learning about children's computer coding initiatives and it seems fitting to me that I publish this Instagram post, at the Science Museum which has long championed technology, innovation and inspired the next generation of inventors," Queen Elizabeth wrote.

Photo credit: Getty Images

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