YouTube 'Incentivizing' Meghan Markle Trolls to Produce Hate Videos—Data Analyst
Meghan Markle trolls are earning thousands via YouTube advertising, which then acts as an incentive to "continue creating more hate-filled content," a data analyst has told Newsweek.
Bot Sentinel has been investigating what it described in one report as a network of hate targeting the Duchess of Sussex.
The company started off looking at Twitter where it found in October that 70 percent of hateful Twitter posts about Meghan were produced by a core of 55 troll account backed up by 28 secondary accounts that were used to spread the toxic discourse.
However, it has since moved on and is now looking at YouTube where founder Christopher Bouzy identified one account, Yankee Wally, which appears to make $3,300-a-month in ad revenue.
He told Newsweek there were more users earning similar sums from posting hostile videos about the duchess and said they would be exposed in a future report by the company.
Bouzy told Newsweek: "I think it's unconscionable and abhorrent that people are earning thousands of dollars each month from videos created to spread hate, and platforms like YouTube are incentivizing these people to continue creating more hate-filled content."
Yankee Wally posted more than 500 videos, with names including "Proof of what a Manipulative Evil Conniving Plotting Controlling Narcissist Meghan Markle REALLY is."
Past research by Newsweek showed a separate troll account, Murky Meg, made money off adverts on hate videos, including for human rights organization Amnesty International.
When contacted by Newsweek, the charity said it advertised through YouTube using a package that applied the company's strictest controls on hateful content but the platform placed its ad on the hate channel all the same.
Newsweek has reached out to YouTube and Yankee Wally for comment.
Bot Sentinel in October said Twitter's algorithm fueled the troll network targeting Meghan by suggesting new followers for the hate accounts.
Its report read: "We used Twitter accounts without friends or followers during our research, and after viewing two hate accounts, Twitter's algorithm began suggesting numerous hate accounts.
"On multiple occasions, Twitter recommended we follow these hate accounts.
"It is our opinion the accounts included in this report are violating Twitter's rules on
platform manipulation and spam, abuse/harassment, and publishing private
information."
Meghan told the Teenager Therapy podcast in October 2020 of the impact online trolling had on her.
She said: "I'm told that in 2019, I was the most trolled person in the entire world, male or female.
"For eight months of that, I wasn't even visible. I was on maternity leave or with a baby, but what was able to be manufactured and churned out, it's almost unsurvivable."
