Meghan Markle on the “toxicity” of social media and the “women who spit on it”

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In a last-minute SXSW keynote panel added in time for International Women’s Day, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, spoke about how social media is having a negative impact on women.

“Even if it’s about making dollars, it’s meaningless,” said the former Suits star during Breaking barriers, shaping narratives: how women lead on and off screen panel.

Katie Couric, also on the panel, cited statistics that the impact of social media on young women is on par with excessive alcohol consumption in terms of increases in suicide rates. “We have a real crisis on our hands here,” said the former Today is the show and CBS Evening News anchor.

“The toxicity that comes to you, yes, social media is an environment that has a lot of that,” Markle said.

The duchess told the packed Austin Convention Center auditorium that she handles the negative social media thrown at her by staying away from it. Markle said she was bombarded the most when she was pregnant with her children Archie and Lily. Markle was taken aback by how “malicious and cruel” people can be.

“But we also create these habits; What I think is more common is how much hate women throw at other women. I can’t make sense of it,” she continued.

“When you read something terrible about a woman, why do you share it with your friends?” the duchess continued. “That’s the piece that’s so missing right now. “We have forgotten our humanity.”

Markle noted how the SXSW panel is being streamed on YouTube without checking the name on the portal.

“Everyone can hear the brilliance of this platform, but it also has hate and rhetoric. (The platform) incentivizes people to create pages to post comments and conspiracy theories that have a tremendous effect on mental health and safety.”

Markle said that “systematic change has to come at the same time as cultural change.” The duchess said that while there are many female executives in positions of power, they are “allowing this behavior to become widespread. They have to put the ‘Twos’ behind the ‘Dice’.” That said, she highlighted Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria as an executive who is making changes with content that shows better representation of women and more diverse faces.

Today’s session was brought to you by Markle’s Archewell Foundation and The 19th, the national nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.

He also appeared on the panel that was moderated by The 19th editor-at-large Errin Haines was Brooke Shields and sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen.