The Duchess of Sussex has long faced speculation that she could be entering the political sphere, but in their latest move in the world of politics, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have reportedly launched a campaign in the fight against election misinformation.
Election day in America is set to be held on November 5, 2024, in what is widely expected to be a rematch between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
According to reports, the couple are “working to prepare US voters for a possible deepfake onslaught.”
Harry and Meghan’s charity, The Archewell Foundation, is preparing to help voters against disinformation, according to a report from Axios. The website states: “A bipartisan coalition with support from Hollywood power players and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Foundation is working to prepare US voters for a possible deepfake onslaught as the campaign year goes into high gear.”
Experts predict in the lead-up to elections, “malicious state actors and domestic political operatives” could use deep-fake tech to confuse voters.
The two 2020 contenders will provide the US with its first rematch in a presidential election for nearly 70 years – when Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower again defeated Adlai Stevenson in 1956, the same Democratic opponent he had four years prior.
In the run-up to the crunch vote, Google, Meta and OpenAI have said they will combat deceptive content and Harry and Meghan’s organisation are also “helping brainstorm new content”.
Since stepping down as senior royals in 2020 and moving to the United States, where they now live with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, the couple have become actively involved in politics.
This is not the first the time couple has spoken about elections. During the 2020 election, they released a video urging voters to sign up and reject misinformation.
In the video, Harry asked voters to “reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity”, whereas Meghan urged Americans to use their votes.
In 2020, the Duke and Duchess appeared on a TIME 100 special hosted by US TV broadcaster ABC. Both Harry and Meghan featured in the broadcast, and took the opportunity to urge people to vote ahead.
Meghan said: “Every four years, we’re told ‘this is the most important election of our lifetime’.”
As Harry is a British citizen, he is unable to vote in the US and revealed that he has never voted in the UK as it is tradition for royals to stay out of UK politics.
Meghan has been involved in activism for much of her life, beginning as a child when she wrote to Procter & Gamble about a sexist advertising campaign. During her acting career, she became an outspoken advocate for feminism, and was named a United Nations Women’s Advocate for Women’s Political Participation and Leadership in 2015.
In 2021, she began lobbying for compulsory paid parental leave in the US and started code-calling senators in the US to push the policy.
