Just In: Should Meghan Markle and Prince Harry stay out of politics?…. Check In

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have come under fire after they launched an attack on Meta.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex hit the headlines this week when they launched an attack on Meta for scrapping its fact-checking programme.

In the remarks published on their website, Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation accused Meta of having no “integrity”, being “deeply deceptive”, and “allowing either ego or profit, likely both, to guide decisions that affect billions.”

It comes as founder Mark Zuckerberg announced he would “get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X

Nile Gardiner, a fellow at conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation in Washington, accused the couple of a “hugely inappropriate” intervention.

He told outlet The Daily Beast the whole issue of fact-checking at the social media giant is a “deeply political matter”.

He added the couple’s statement was “a clear intervention on a deeply political matter, specifically the contentious issue of censorship on social media in the United States. This is a hot-button political topic, particularly in the current climate.”

Mr Gardiner, who is also director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, is an ally of Donald Trump and a fierce critic of the Sussexes. He has been the driving force behind attempts to force the publication of Prince Harry’s immigration record after he admitted to drug abuse in his memoir Spare.

But US judge Carl Nichols ruled in September that the duke’s visa application should not be made public, saying that “the public does not have a strong interest in disclosure of the duke’s immigration records”.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a statement this week accusing Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, of “allowing more abuse and normalising hate speech” after its decision to scrap third-party fact-checking and loosen its content moderation.

The Sussexes called on Meta to reconsider the changes, and urged firms to commit to make online spaces safe, saying: “We applaud leaders who refuse to kowtow to bullying”.