Social media are changing relations between the royals, the press and the public

The press had been camped outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s hospital in west London for weeks before the birth of Prince George, son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (better known as William and Kate), in July 2013. Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor made a quieter entrance on May 6th. There were no waiting journalists because his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Harry and Meghan), had kept the location of his birth secret. Instead, the first word of his arrival came via @sussex royal, the couple’s official Instagram account, which scooped the press with a message reading: “It’s a boy!”

The relationship between Britain’s royal family and the media has long been strained. But two developments in recent years have made the palace and the press mutually less interested in each other. One is that British newspapers have toned down their royal muckraking. Tighter budgets mean that editors lack the staff to pursue princes and princesses as closely as they used to.

At the same time, the internet has made British papers less important to the monarchy. Readers can get their royal gossip from foreign publications that are not bound by British privacy or libel laws.

This is especially true of social media. The royal family has upped its social game, hiring a head of digital engagement in 2016.It now has several social-media accounts, each with millions of followers, who monitor the royals’ activities alongside those of Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian.