--- title: What the New Social Media Guidelines for the Royal Family Say description: Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton have long been the targets of social media trolls — so the royals are rolling out new guidelines. canonical: https://time.com/5543106/british-royals-block-trolls/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-04T18:11:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:52.284Z og:title: How the British Royals Will Start Blocking Online Trolls og:description: The British royals rolled out a new set of guidelines for social media og:url: https://time.com/5543106/british-royals-block-trolls/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8910fb1747f8db30/6989462b09208f09224136d9/kate-middleton-meghan-markle.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: The Royal Family Attend Church On Christmas Day og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the British Royals Will Start Blocking Online Trolls twitter:description: The British royals rolled out a new set of guidelines for social media twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8910fb1747f8db30/6989462b09208f09224136d9/kate-middleton-meghan-markle.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The British Royal Family Rolled Out Guidelines to Combat Hateful Online Trolls > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=302f8a9d-ac57-40fd-87af-835833debb0b&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 4, 2019 6:11 PM UTC  Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend Christmas Day Church service at Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate on December 25, 2018 in King's Lynn, England. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend Christmas Day Church service at Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate on December 25, 2018 in King's Lynn, England. Samir Hussein—Pool/Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 4, 2019 6:11 PM UTC It would appear they have had it: the British royals are making moves to block [social media trolls](http://time.com/4457110/internet-trolls/), publishing a set of “social media community guidelines” this week to help aim to make the official Kensington Palace and royal accounts stay hate-free. [Meghan Markle](http://time.com/5445288/meghan-markle-baby-news/), Duchess of Sussex and [Kate Middleton](http://time.com/5464225/royals-christmas-2018/), Duchess of Cambridge have come in for their fare share of online abuse over the past few years. Neither of the Duchesses maintain personal social media accounts, but rather share news and updates through the official royal platforms, which have millions of followers and rack up tens of thousands of likes and hundreds of comments per post. “We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities,” the new rules ask. Spam, defamation, obscenity, offensive language, threats and explicit material are all off-limits, as are comments that “promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.” The royal team is reserving the right to hide, delete, block and report comments and users that deviate from these new norms. > [](https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1102512689358749699) This is not the first time the Palace has taken steps to protect its royals from online abuse. When Prince Harry went public with his relationship with [Meghan Markle](http://time.com/5036452/prince-harry-meghan-markle-relationship-timeline/) in 2016, he issued an official statement condemning the “[wave of abuse and harassment](http://time.com/4562242/prince-harry-meghan-markle-statement/)” experienced. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5543106/british-royals-block-trolls/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5543106/british-royals-block-trolls/"},"headline":"The British Royal Family Rolled Out Guidelines to Combat Hateful Online Trolls","datePublished":"2019-03-04T18:11:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:52.284Z","description":"Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton are often targets on social media","url":"https://time.com/5543106/british-royals-block-trolls/","keywords":["Newsfeed","royals","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8910fb1747f8db30/6989462b09208f09224136d9/kate-middleton-meghan-markle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8910fb1747f8db30/6989462b09208f09224136d9/kate-middleton-meghan-markle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Royal Family Attend Church On Christmas Day","caption":"The Royal Family Attend Church On Christmas Day","creditText":"Samir Hussein—Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5543106/british-royals-block-trolls/","name":"The British Royal Family Rolled Out Guidelines to Combat Hateful Online Trolls"}}]}] ```