The impact that the relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has had on Britain, and in particular the hatred that most English tabloids have had for them, has reached Parliament.
A Labor MP, Chris Bryant, commented that newspapers have taken advantage of the controversy and focused on the royal couple to increase their audience and advertising revenue, thus monetizing the hatred that exists in various places on the Internet towards the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Bryant criticizes the press's clickbait tactics
Bryant claimed that newspapers have "filled their websites with hateful material about Meghan Markle. It's becoming their richest clickbait scene... attracting readers and generating advertising revenue," he said.
He made the comments during a speech given by actor Hugh Grant at the annual Leveson conference, organized by the press reform group Hacked Off.
The money that allows journalists to criticize them is what journalists seek
Bryan went further, claiming that criticizing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex makes so much money that is why "so many British opinion writers write so much nonsense about the couple."
"Not because the story matters. It doesn't. Not because the writers really care. They don't. But because it makes money," he said.
"That is not journalism. It is a perversion of journalism and it means, once again, that the press sees people's lives as a commodity to be traded."
He added that one of the main reasons for this hate in media coverage is social media algorithms and the type of content they promote. "Algorithms push people to political extremes, encourage division, and pervert the truth by creating an incentive for falsehood."
"To the innocent bystander, it seems like everyone hates Harry and Meghan, but this is not normal, spontaneous or altruistic hate. It is coordinated and deliberate, using social media recommendation systems to amplify the hate."
