Meghan Markle Talks Social Media’s Dangers at SXSW: ‘There Is So Much Work to Be Done in Terms of Keeping People Safe’

variety.com:

Jaden Thompson Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, is speaking out against the dangers of social media. Speaking on a SXSW panel called “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen,” held on International Women’s Day, Markle was asked about her personal experience with online “toxicity.” “Yes, social media is an environment that has a lot of that [toxicity] …I keep my distance from it right now just for my own wellbeing,” she said.

She shared that she received the most negatives comments online when she was pregnant with her two children and parenting them as newborns. “You have to really wrap your head around why people would be so hateful.

It’s not catty — it’s cruel,” she said. “And certainly when you’re pregnant or you have a newborn, as moms you know it’s such a tender and sacred time.

And you can either succumb to it or nearly succumb to how painful it is. And maybe in some regards, that mammalian instinct just kicked in: ‘Do everything you can to protect your child’ and as a result protect yourself too.” Markle also discussed her discomfort with how often women target other women online. “As we look at what’s happening in social media, there is so much work to be done in terms of keeping people safe.