Prince Harry says he sent an email to Twitter CEO ahead of US Capitol riot

Prince Harry said he warned the chief executive of Twitter ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots that the social media site was being used to stage political unrest in the U.S. capital.

Taking part in an online panel on misinformation in California, the Duke of Sussex  said he made his concerns known via email to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the day before the riot.

“Jack and I were emailing each other prior to January 6 where I warned him that his platform was allowing a coup to be staged,” Harry was quoted by Associated Press as saying  at the RE:WIRED tech forum.

 “That email was sent the day before and then it happened and I haven’t heard from him since.”

Social media sites have come under fire for not doing enough to halt the spread of misinformation and inciteful content, with the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump just one example. Big tech in general has been accused of putting growth and profits ahead of public safety.

Harry also accused other social media sites like Facebook of misleading “billions of people” with COVID and climate change misinformation. He also targeted YouTube, saying many videos spreading COVID misinformation were left up despite violating the site’s own policies.

“And worse, they came to the users via the recommendation tool within YouTube’s own algorithm versus anything that the user was actually searching for,″ he said. “It shows really that it can be stopped but also they didn’t want to stop it because it affects their bottom line.”