The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are “working to prepare US voters for a possible deepfake onslaught” during the election year, according to reports. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have launched a campaign in the fight against election misinformation—in their latest move in the world of politics.
The Duchess of Sussex has long faced speculation that she could be entering the political sphere, with the couple hiring Obama’s PR guru to work on their team and speaking out about the US election back in 2020. During the last cycle four years ago, feminist activist Gloria Steinem previously told Access Hollywood that Meghan had joined her in calling Americans and asking them to vote. In the interview Steinem said, “She came home to vote. The first thing we did, and why she came to see me, was we sat at the dining room table where I am right now and we cold-called voters.”
And now it seems the couple are once again wading into the political world, as their foundation launches a campaign against election misinformation. A report from Axios detailed how 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” during the election year.
According to the report, experts are predicting both “malicious state actors and domestic political operatives” will use deepfake tech and other media manipulation to confuse voters during the US election campaign. Google, Meta, and OpenAI are all pledging to combat deceptive AI election content, while two adverts have been produced by Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan’s son, to raise awareness for the issue. Meanwhile, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s organization Archewell is also “helping brainstorm new content.”
Since stepping down as senior royals and moving across the pond, Harry and Meghan haven’t shied away from their involvement in politics. Predictions that the duchess might even move into politics have swirled before.
During the 2020 election cycle, they were both particularly active—releasing a video in which they urged voters to register to vote and to reject misinformation. In the clip Harry urged voters to “reject hate speech, misinformation, and online negativity,” with Meghan adding that the presidential race was the “most important election of our lifetime” and pleaded for Americans to use their vote.
In the video Harry said he was not eligible to vote since he’s a British citizen and revealed he had never voted in the UK either, where royals traditionally steer clear of politics. And Meghan said, “We’re just six weeks out from Election Day and today is National Voter Registration Day,” adding, “Every four years we are told the same thing, that this is the most important election of our lifetime. But this one is,” she said.
