Prince Charles To Visit Meta Despite Harry, Meghan's Anti-Facebook Campaign

Prince Charles will officially open Meta's new London office despite Prince Harry and Meghan Markle previously campaigning in favor of a boycott of the company.

The Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will learn about what the tech giant, formally known as Facebook, is doing to help in Ukraine and about its new cutting edge technology.

The royals will learn about the 2Africa project, which will see a cable connect Europe, the Middle East and Asia, bringing high speed internet to 3 billion people.

A Clarence House press release said: "Their Royal Highnesses will also hear from the Meta team about the work being done to support the people of Ukraine.

"This will include the Community Help feature that's live in Ukraine and neighbouring countries and the information service launched on WhatsApp by Ukraine's State Emergency Services.

"The Duchess will also meet Facebook Group admins who use the platform to support parents and families in their communities.

"Their Royal Highnesses will then jointly visit Meta's London Social Good fair, which will highlight local community projects and initiatives being supported by Meta and its UK employees.

"They will meet some of the young people from a diverse range of backgrounds who have benefitted from mentoring and training initiatives in partnership with charities including The Prince's Trust."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has himself thanked Meta for its support while Reuters reported the company's platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, have been banned by the Russian courts.

The tone for Charles and Camilla's visit will be very different to the Stop Hate for Profit campaign which Meghan and Harry backed in summer 2020.

Hundreds of companies boycotted advertising with Facebook that July, in the wake of George Floyd's murder by a white police officer in May.

Harry and Meghan not only supported the campaign but spoke to business leaders to encourage them to take part in the early days of their Archewell Foundation.

A source told Newsweek in June 2020: "As we've been developing Archewell, one of the areas The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been keen to address is online hate speech, and we've been working with civil rights and racial justice groups on it.

"Over the past few weeks, in particular, this issue has become even more vital and they have been working to encourage global CEOs to stand in solidarity with a coalition of civil and racial justice groups like the NAACP, Color of Change and the Anti-Defamation League, which are calling for structural changes to our online world."

The three organizations were instrumental in Stop Hate for Profit, which called on advertisers to stand in solidarity with Black Facebook users.

Harry's eco-tourism venture Travalyst has since begun working with Google on a project to give people environmentally friendly options for travel—suggesting Meghan and Harry are not completely opposed to tech.

However, the couple are yet to set up social media platforms two years on from their former Sussex Royal accounts becoming defunct.

Harry worked for the Aspen Institute's Commission on Information Disorder, and its final report in November 2021 was critical of Facebook.

The document, seen by Newsweek, read: "The problem seems to be getting worse, not better. Major platforms are increasingly invoking their 'Terms of Service' to shut down reporting and research that is in the public interest.

"In a recent example, Facebook invoked its terms of service to explain its decision to disable the accounts of NYU researchers who study political ads on the platform."

It added: "Research has shown that the pages on Facebook that post more
misinformation regularly received higher engagement."

Update 03/30/22, 10:59 a.m. EDT: This article was updated to include more detail on Meta's role in Russia and Ukraine.