Washington:
The photo was intended to quell speculation about the whereabouts and health of Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, but her photoshopped image has sparked a flood of rumors and conspiracy theories on the internet.
The storm in the royal teapot erupted on Monday after Kate, 42, apologized and admitted to editing a photo released by the palace of her and her three children, which was retracted by news organizations including AFP.
The fiasco sparked a new wave of speculation about the British royal family – dubbed the “Kate conspiracy” online – and exposed the fragility of the digital environment in an age of rampant disinformation that erodes trust and puts social media at risk Users become amateur sleuths.
The online guessing game has begun since the princess has not been seen in public since attending a Christmas church service and undergoing abdominal surgery in January.
In the information vacuum, online posts speculated whether her marriage to William, heir to the British throne, was in jeopardy. Others wondered if Kate was recovering from an eating disorder or a Brazilian butt lift, while some wondered if she was still alive.
On Sunday, the palace released a photo it said was taken recently by William, but eagle-eyed social media users began tearing it apart because of inconsistencies, such as a misaligned zipper on Kate’s jacket.
The inconsistency was so obvious that several global news organizations, including AFP, pulled the photo.
Then the rumors started spreading even faster after the princess announced in a statement that, oops, she edited the photo, without revealing the reason for doing so or what she edited.
“The moral of editing royal photos is simple. Tell everyone,” wrote Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins.
“Privacy doesn’t work at this stage. It breeds rumor, gossip and fabrication.”
Internet Rabbit Hole
That’s exactly what happened. Social media is awash with memes exploring the hidden contents of the palace.
“Every family hides a secret,” reads a photo circulating on Twitter, now X, of the fictional Netflix show “The Royal Conspiracy.” The Disappearance of Kate Middleton.
Kensington Palace refused to release an unedited copy of the photo, prompting social media sleuths to go down new rabbit holes.
Some observers are calling it the “Streisand effect,” the royal version—where palace secrecy and poor PR have made speculation about Kate worse, addictive even to those who normally shy away from such gossip.
Some questioned whether the photo was actually edited by Kate.
Some people turned to horticulturists to ask about the plant in the background of the altered photo, as it looks leafy and leafy at this time of year in England.
A group of self-proclaimed Kate Middleton truthers are demanding to know her whereabouts, while some are humorously speculating whether she abandoned her family to attend intensive Photoshop classes.
Pleas from royal sympathizers appear to have been ignored as they insist Kate is entitled to her privacy and should not be disturbed.
‘transparency’
At a time when concerns about false or misleading visual information are at an all-time high, especially in the wake of rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence, processed images are being discarded.
American writer Charlie Worzel wrote in The Atlantic Monthly: “People now feel a general, low-level sense of disorientation, suspicion and distrust.”
“As the royal photo fiasco shows, the era of deepfakes doesn’t need to be driven by generative AI — a hasty Photoshop will do.”
The outrage also prompted many to ask whether members of the British royal family had previously altered images, with outlets such as CNN saying they were reviewing all handout photos previously provided by Kensington Palace.
The climate of distrust online has sparked new calls for transparency, even among members of the British royal family, which has a long tradition of secrecy.
Last month, Kate’s father-in-law, King Charles III, won plaudits for publicly announcing that he had cancer.
But many health experts accused him of not declaring the type of cancer, a move that would have encouraged the British public to follow his lead and get themselves checked.
Catherine Mayer, author of “Charles: The Heart of a King,” said: “If the royal family truly wants to establish important values for the country, they should start by radically changing the way they treat the media in favor of transparency (and) rigorous Honest.'” wrote on X.
“They should be fighting disinformation, not promoting it.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
