Meg tinhat's identities are exposed : Articles about the fandom
On Feb 3 2019, Meghan tinhats from Twitter and Tumblr (including tumblr ringleader jerseydeanne) were exposed by the Daily Mail.
The DM posted their names, occupations, locations and details of their families. The tinhats responded by saying it was illegal and or orchestrated by Meg herself.
Here is the DM article.
"Unmasked: The cruel trolls who spew bile against the Duchess of Sussex on social media, branding her a 'hooker' and 'trash'... and call for #Megxit"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6661499/Cruel-trolls-spew-bile-against-Duchess-Sussex.html
The Telegraph also wrote an article on the tinhats:
"How online trolls who hate 'Lady Megbeth' are taking over the genteel world of royal watching"
By Guy Kelly 3 February 2019 • 8:00am
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2019/02/03/online-trolls-hate-lady-megbeth-taking-genteel-world-royal-watching/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw
Last Thursday was like much like any other day for the Duchess of Sussex. In the midst of a busy week, she was up early after a trip to the National Theatre on Wednesday, and spent the morning on a solo visit to another of her new charity patronages, the Association of Commonwealth Universities at King’s College London.
Dressed in a Givenchy all-black ensemble and nude high heels, the Duchess waved to deep, cheering crowds, held her ever-swelling baby bump, met the organisation’s executives and students, and learned about the transformational power of higher education. And then she left. It was, by all accounts, another successful engagement carried out by a well-liked, well-dressed, hard-working member of the Royal Family.
All accounts, that is, based in the real world.
“Like a black widow on the way to a funeral is #MeghanMarkle visiting the Association of Commonwealth Universities. #Prince Harry watch your back,” wrote the Twitter user ‘Fairetalesparklz’ soon afterwards, under a photograph of the Duchess smiling at the event. They added the hashtag #Megxit, a call sign to other trolls that unite behind their hatred of the Californian, and in came the rest. ‘Bella Wolf’, another user, replied. “With that uneven, kind of raggedy hem I would compare her to a witch. But widow is fine too. She definitely killed Harry’s spirit.” It went on. And on.
Over on Kensington Palace’s official Instagram page, which has more than 7 million followers, a similar image from the day had prompted ‘kelleywynn’ to write: “Some days she looks more white and others more black. Must decide which race she wants to play when she wakes up!” That came amid a fierce argument in the comments about whether the Duchess really had a university degree (she does, it’s on the record), whether the Duchess of Cambridge would have looked more or less elegant at the same event (give me strength), and a generally vicious spat between pro- and anti- Markle fans, both of whom frequently sounded unhinged.
Perhaps the blog sites would be a little more measured in their coverage, you might think. Alas, no. ‘SkippyIsHereToStay’, a Tumblr largely dedicated to following the Royal Family, posted suggesting the Duchess had deliberately placed the packet of Smints seen in her car door in one image as an advertising placement. It then asked, earnestly, whether there was the ‘fake’ bump. There are always posts about the bump.
It really was much like any other day.
This week, Kensington Palace revealed it is having to work overtime to deal with a unstoppable flurry of abuse aimed at the Duchesses of Sussex and Cambridge online. According to one source quoted staff are allegedly spending several hours a week trying to manage vile comments aimed at the women and posted on its own Instagram and Twitter accounts, as the once genteel world of the Royal Family fandom has turned incredibly murky.
It isn’t simply Team Kate vs Team Meghan (though that remains a hearty debate), in the way it might have been fun to favour Fergie over Diana, or vice-versa, in the 1980s, either. Many of the comments are racist, the overwhelming majority are sexist, and some of them are utterly, utterly mad, especially where the Duchess of Sussex is concerned. “Cheer on this gold-digging fraud who made Harry marry and knock her up as soon as possible. We all will see the great failure of Megsy very soon. She’s playing a game under the eyes of the world, when she will fail, she’ll be done forever,” came one Instagram comment recently. Another, “Megssy will be gone” had some quite disturbing emojis at the end of it.
“The Palace has always monitored comments but it’s a hugely time consuming thing. They can block certain words, but some of it is serious and can’t be ignored. Over the course of last year, with hundreds of thousands of comments, there were two or three that were violent threats. You can delete and report and block people and the police have options around particular people. It’s something you have to manage because there’s no other way to control it.’ a Kensington Palace source told Hello!, which this week launched a campaign to help stamp out online hatred aimed at the Duchesses.
Blocking clearly racist terms is all very well, but it doesn’t account for the dark creativity of trolls in 2019, who are nothing if not imaginative when it comes to their vicious and disturbing abuse. The Duchess of Sussex’s haters are among the most. #Megxit is just one hashtag that unites the most extreme, allowing them to easily find one another and bitch, or share conspiracy theories.
Others include #CharlatanDuchess, #DuchessOfDeceit and #MoonBump – the latter named after a company that makes the kind of fake, silicon pregnancy bumps for stage and screen that many trolls have been accusing Markle of wearing for months. (It’s a rampant theory they ‘justify’, daily, with more and more complex diagrams, close-ups and reconstructions.) Some groups have even started calling the Duchess ‘Lady MegBeth’, or, bizarrely, ‘the alliterate interloper.’ Imagine their fury when they learn about William Windsor.
It isn’t entirely clear how the situation has reached this point. Perhaps it was inevitable that fan groups would assemble behind the young Royal women – Meghan’s defenders are called ‘Megulators’ or ‘The Sussex Squad’ – and compare their style, confidence, workload (a frequent criticism levelled at the Duchess of Cambridge, a mother-of-three, is that she averages “20-45 minutes” per engagement, compared to her sister-in-law’s 120), especially given their vastly different backgrounds, but with anonymous posting and online abuse rife in general, it has reached an unprecedented level.
Many of the trolls work together, it seems. When a media story emerges that isn’t supportive of a particular faction’s view, for instance, Fleet Street royal reporters and Kensington Palace communications staff are frequently rounded on in what seem like eerily coordinated attacks, something the ‘Megulators’ are just as guilty of as their opposition.
This aspect, in addition to suspicious signs on the accounts themselves – such as when they were established, who else they follow, similarities with other accounts – has even given rise to a suggestion that some trolls may be automated ‘bots’. Many of those posting against Markle were established only in the last few months, for instance, follow only one another, and appear to never sleep, posting at all times of day and within seconds of a story publishing.
The use of fake accounts posting mass abuse in such a manner wouldn’t be new to Twitter: it is notoriously common on the extreme ends of politics, not least under posts relating to Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn. But quite why somebody would wish to sow and farm hate in the comments sections of coverage of the British Royal Family is anybody’s guess.
Until that question’s answered, it seems, the hate may well go on.
The DM posted their names, occupations, locations and details of their families. The tinhats responded by saying it was illegal and or orchestrated by Meg herself.
Here is the DM article.
"Unmasked: The cruel trolls who spew bile against the Duchess of Sussex on social media, branding her a 'hooker' and 'trash'... and call for #Megxit"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6661499/Cruel-trolls-spew-bile-against-Duchess-Sussex.html
Cruel trolls behind a torrent of social media abuse aimed at the Duchess of Sussex are unmasked today.
As Kensington Palace aides express mounting concern over the issue, The Mail on Sunday has traced some of those involved in a Twitter hate campaign against Meghan, including the use of the hashtag #MEGXIT.
While
cultivating an image of respectability in their communities, the trolls
secretly post a stream of bile against the Duchess. Even when
confronted, most were unapologetic.
The
investigation comes just days after it emerged that Palace staff have
been forced to delete a stream of disgusting posts from its social media
channels.
Royal aides last night said they were increasingly worried
not only by the social media attacks on members of the Royal Family, but
between rival camps of supporters.
A Palace source said: ‘We take any threats and abuse raised
to our principals very seriously, but our main concern is actually the level of
hostility that commenters were directing to other commenters and the upset that
was causing.’
Such troublemakers include McLain Rose, a 23-year-old legal
assistant whose mother is a former US attorney in North Carolina.
On her social media accounts, she details a lavish
lifestyle, including sipping champagne in the first-class sections of jets and
taking exotic holidays. But she also uses the profile ‘Hurricane McLain’ to
denigrate Meghan.
In one post comparing Meghan unfavourably with the Duchess
of Cambridge, she wrote: ‘Catherine is so sweet and genuine… Nothing like that
other bitch, who shall not be named. #MEGXIT.’ In another, she calls the
Duchess of Cambridge ‘a true Royal, unlike the trash Harry dragged in’.
Like
many trolls, she spouts the ludicrous slur that the Duchess is
fabricating her pregnancy, by retweeting the post: ‘Meghan’s bump is
fake as f***.’
Showing no contrition,
McLain said last night: ‘I would rather be a troll standing up for
something I believe in than a blind follower.’
Jessie
Tyson, an elderly British author who moved to Canada in 2000, issued an
equally brazen defence of her posts about Meghan, who she has labelled a
‘floozy Flopsy’.
Asked
about her posts, Tyson said: ‘I love the Royal Family. Then she
[Meghan] came along. She dresses like a teenager, she has dirty hair and
nails, filthy shoes, and she breaks Royal protocol.’
Palace staff have been forced to delete a stream of disgusting posts from its social media channels made against Meghan.
To
fellow parishioners in Philadelphia, Mercedes Dawson is a pillar of the
community, but her tweets about Meghan include: ‘Harry made her famous…
D list actress, all she knew to do in Suits was to take off her
clothes.’
Dawson, who is believed to
have won an award for her work in a care home, did not respond to
requests for comment. However, an unidentified woman who called from a
blocked number to address questions about her posts said: ‘Out of a
million-odd people why did you single me out? Back off. I have nothing
to say.’
Married mother Victoria
Iglesias loves to share family snaps from trips to Disneyland on
Facebook, but she is similarly keen on traducing Meghan. One of her
outrageous and libellous tweets reads: ‘She has zero talent. Never heard
of her before she became Harry’s legal hooker. Even her x rated films
are horrid.’
When contacted for
comment, Iglesias, from Los Angeles, ironically expressed concern that
she might be condemned on social media. ‘There’s a lot of trolls on
Twitter who would tear me to pieces if they found me,’ she said.
Meanwhile,
Deanne Masters, from Florida, uses her blog, Jerseydeanne.com, to share
outrageous anonymous posts from others, including fake claims Meghan
has slept with people for drugs. ‘She is a public servant who was not
elected and people do have a right to criticise their representative,’
Masters told this newspaper. Veoniss Melissa Houston uses the pseudonym
Vintage Scorpio 1975 to post disparaging remarks about Meghan on the
Jerseydeanne blog.
Last week, she wrote: ‘She makes trailer park trash look good. She makes drug addicts in an abandoned house look good.’
Asked
to explain her posts, she said: ‘I am African American also, so I do
not hate her. There has been times when I read the blogs and I comment
and sometimes I do go a little bit too far.’
The Telegraph also wrote an article on the tinhats:
"How online trolls who hate 'Lady Megbeth' are taking over the genteel world of royal watching"
By Guy Kelly 3 February 2019 • 8:00am
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2019/02/03/online-trolls-hate-lady-megbeth-taking-genteel-world-royal-watching/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw
Last Thursday was like much like any other day for the Duchess of Sussex. In the midst of a busy week, she was up early after a trip to the National Theatre on Wednesday, and spent the morning on a solo visit to another of her new charity patronages, the Association of Commonwealth Universities at King’s College London.
Dressed in a Givenchy all-black ensemble and nude high heels, the Duchess waved to deep, cheering crowds, held her ever-swelling baby bump, met the organisation’s executives and students, and learned about the transformational power of higher education. And then she left. It was, by all accounts, another successful engagement carried out by a well-liked, well-dressed, hard-working member of the Royal Family.
All accounts, that is, based in the real world.
“Like a black widow on the way to a funeral is #MeghanMarkle visiting the Association of Commonwealth Universities. #Prince Harry watch your back,” wrote the Twitter user ‘Fairetalesparklz’ soon afterwards, under a photograph of the Duchess smiling at the event. They added the hashtag #Megxit, a call sign to other trolls that unite behind their hatred of the Californian, and in came the rest. ‘Bella Wolf’, another user, replied. “With that uneven, kind of raggedy hem I would compare her to a witch. But widow is fine too. She definitely killed Harry’s spirit.” It went on. And on.
Over on Kensington Palace’s official Instagram page, which has more than 7 million followers, a similar image from the day had prompted ‘kelleywynn’ to write: “Some days she looks more white and others more black. Must decide which race she wants to play when she wakes up!” That came amid a fierce argument in the comments about whether the Duchess really had a university degree (she does, it’s on the record), whether the Duchess of Cambridge would have looked more or less elegant at the same event (give me strength), and a generally vicious spat between pro- and anti- Markle fans, both of whom frequently sounded unhinged.
Perhaps the blog sites would be a little more measured in their coverage, you might think. Alas, no. ‘SkippyIsHereToStay’, a Tumblr largely dedicated to following the Royal Family, posted suggesting the Duchess had deliberately placed the packet of Smints seen in her car door in one image as an advertising placement. It then asked, earnestly, whether there was the ‘fake’ bump. There are always posts about the bump.
It really was much like any other day.
This week, Kensington Palace revealed it is having to work overtime to deal with a unstoppable flurry of abuse aimed at the Duchesses of Sussex and Cambridge online. According to one source quoted staff are allegedly spending several hours a week trying to manage vile comments aimed at the women and posted on its own Instagram and Twitter accounts, as the once genteel world of the Royal Family fandom has turned incredibly murky.
It isn’t simply Team Kate vs Team Meghan (though that remains a hearty debate), in the way it might have been fun to favour Fergie over Diana, or vice-versa, in the 1980s, either. Many of the comments are racist, the overwhelming majority are sexist, and some of them are utterly, utterly mad, especially where the Duchess of Sussex is concerned. “Cheer on this gold-digging fraud who made Harry marry and knock her up as soon as possible. We all will see the great failure of Megsy very soon. She’s playing a game under the eyes of the world, when she will fail, she’ll be done forever,” came one Instagram comment recently. Another, “Megssy will be gone” had some quite disturbing emojis at the end of it.
“The Palace has always monitored comments but it’s a hugely time consuming thing. They can block certain words, but some of it is serious and can’t be ignored. Over the course of last year, with hundreds of thousands of comments, there were two or three that were violent threats. You can delete and report and block people and the police have options around particular people. It’s something you have to manage because there’s no other way to control it.’ a Kensington Palace source told Hello!, which this week launched a campaign to help stamp out online hatred aimed at the Duchesses.
Blocking clearly racist terms is all very well, but it doesn’t account for the dark creativity of trolls in 2019, who are nothing if not imaginative when it comes to their vicious and disturbing abuse. The Duchess of Sussex’s haters are among the most. #Megxit is just one hashtag that unites the most extreme, allowing them to easily find one another and bitch, or share conspiracy theories.
Others include #CharlatanDuchess, #DuchessOfDeceit and #MoonBump – the latter named after a company that makes the kind of fake, silicon pregnancy bumps for stage and screen that many trolls have been accusing Markle of wearing for months. (It’s a rampant theory they ‘justify’, daily, with more and more complex diagrams, close-ups and reconstructions.) Some groups have even started calling the Duchess ‘Lady MegBeth’, or, bizarrely, ‘the alliterate interloper.’ Imagine their fury when they learn about William Windsor.
It isn’t entirely clear how the situation has reached this point. Perhaps it was inevitable that fan groups would assemble behind the young Royal women – Meghan’s defenders are called ‘Megulators’ or ‘The Sussex Squad’ – and compare their style, confidence, workload (a frequent criticism levelled at the Duchess of Cambridge, a mother-of-three, is that she averages “20-45 minutes” per engagement, compared to her sister-in-law’s 120), especially given their vastly different backgrounds, but with anonymous posting and online abuse rife in general, it has reached an unprecedented level.
Many of the trolls work together, it seems. When a media story emerges that isn’t supportive of a particular faction’s view, for instance, Fleet Street royal reporters and Kensington Palace communications staff are frequently rounded on in what seem like eerily coordinated attacks, something the ‘Megulators’ are just as guilty of as their opposition.
This aspect, in addition to suspicious signs on the accounts themselves – such as when they were established, who else they follow, similarities with other accounts – has even given rise to a suggestion that some trolls may be automated ‘bots’. Many of those posting against Markle were established only in the last few months, for instance, follow only one another, and appear to never sleep, posting at all times of day and within seconds of a story publishing.
The use of fake accounts posting mass abuse in such a manner wouldn’t be new to Twitter: it is notoriously common on the extreme ends of politics, not least under posts relating to Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn. But quite why somebody would wish to sow and farm hate in the comments sections of coverage of the British Royal Family is anybody’s guess.
Until that question’s answered, it seems, the hate may well go on.
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