Prince Harry said Tuesday that he had tried to warn Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that people were using his platform to organize a riot on Jan. 6, the day of the Capitol insurrection.
“Jack and I were emailing each other prior to January the sixth. 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 since,” Harry said during a RE:WIRED 2021 panel discussion on misinformation.
Twitter declined to comment to The Associated Press about the prince’s comments. The Hill has reached out to Twitter for comment.
Harry’s comments come as social media and tech platforms are being increasingly scrutinized for how they have handled myriad issues, including combating the spread of COVID-19 and election misinformation.
Former President Trump was permanently banned from Twitter following the Capitol riot for spreading false claims about the 2020 election.
Facebook especially has come under intense scrutiny after documents leaked by former product manager Frances Haugen to The Wall Street Journal showed that it had not adequately combated anti-COVID-19 rhetoric, had known that Instagram sometimes harmed its younger users and had failed to adequately respond to concerns about human traffickers using its site.
Both Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, have pushed back against their company’s characterizations, claiming they do not fairly paint a picture of the work they do.
CNN reported last month that Haugen would be meeting with the House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
“According to this Facebook whistleblower, shutting down the civic integrity team and turning off election misinformation tools contributed to the Jan 6 insurrection,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) tweeted in early October.
“The Select Committee will need to hear from her, and get internal info from Facebook to flesh out their role,” he added.