Prince Harry says he warned Twitter CEO ahead of Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Summary
‘I warned him that his platform was allowing a coup to be staged,’ Duke of Sussex says at conferencePrince Harry said he warned Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey that his social-media platform was allowing a coup to be staged ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“Jack and I were emailing each other prior to January 6, where I warned him that his platform was allowing a coup to be staged. That email was sent the day before and then it happened, and I haven’t heard from him since," Prince Harry said while speaking on a panel at RE:WIRED, a conference hosted by technology magazine Wired.
The Duke of Sussex during the conference criticized social-media companies for not doing enough to restrict misinformation and hate speech, including YouTube and Facebook.
“I’m not on social media," Prince Harry said. “Until things change, that’ll remain the same."
He called misinformation a global humanitarian crisis that causes lives to be ruined and families destroyed. He said that most of the hate speech about his wife, Meghan Markle, on Twitter could be traced to 50 accounts.
“A small group of accounts are allowed to create a huge amount of chaos online," Prince Harry said.
A Twitter representative couldn’t be reached for comment.
On Jan. 6, thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, battled police officers and seized the Capitol building for hours in an effort to disrupt Congress’s certification of President Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Twitter on Jan. 8 permanently suspended Mr. Trump’s account, citing a risk of further incitement of violence following the earlier attack on the Capitol.
Mr. Trump has denied responsibility for the riot. He was impeached by the House in January for inciting an insurrection, and he was acquitted in the Senate in February.