Prince Harry has hit branded the term Megxit “misogynistic” and claimed it was started by an internet troll.
Harry made the comments during a virtual panel at an online summit called 'The Internet Lie Machine' organised by Wired magazine, where he also spoke about social media.
During the conference, he spoke about the term Megxit, which has been used to describe the decision by him and his wife Meghan Markle to quit as senior royals and leave the UK to forge a new life in the United States.
And he branded the term as an example of online and media hatred, claiming: "Maybe people know this and maybe they don’t, but the term Megxit was or is misogynistic, and it was created by a troll, amplified by royal correspondents, and it grew and grew and grew into mainstream media.
"But it began with a troll," Harry added, although he did not elaborate.
He also went on to argue that a large amount of hate speech that can be found online is being spread by a small number of social media accounts.
"More than 70% of the hate speech about my wife on Twitter can be traced to 50 accounts," he said.
Meanwhile, at the event, the prince also claimed he sounded the alarm ahead of the January 6 riots in Washington DC's Capitol.
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When asked if he had spoken to the big tech CEOs to try and convince them to change their platforms, the duke admitted he had previously emailed Twitter chief Jack Dorsey.
He said: "Jack and I were emailing each other prior to January 6 when I warned him his platform was allowing a coup to be staged. That email was sent the day before.
"And then it happened and I haven't heard from him since."
He also argued for more and better regulation of social media platforms so that people can have good access to reliable sources of information.
He added: "Misinformation is a global humanitarian crisis.
"People now more than ever want and need trust, transparency, and truth.
"We need to have a shared reality."
His appearance on the panel came on the same day wife Meghan spoke at a New York Times event, where she too talked about social media.
At the event, she highlighted the fact that Instagram has a like button and the ability to comment, but not a 'dislike' option.
She said: "One of the things that seems like such an easy solve from my lens, if you look at Instagram for example, there's a like button and then there's comments.
"So if you disagree with something you have to comment on it in a really vitriolic way. If there was a dislike button wouldn't that hugely shift what you were putting out there, because you could just like it or just dislike it.
"Now you have to like it or say something negative. It is just adding to this really unfortunate cycle that I think is having an unfortunate effect on women across the world."
