Royal guidelines for social media: How very British

The royal guidelines, published on the official portal of Prince of Wales, ban any comments that are "obscene, offensive and threatening."

So, after repeated cases of online abuse against Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Britain's royal family on Sunday issued a set of guidelines telling social media users to show "courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities." The royal guidelines, published on the official portal of Prince of Wales, ban any comments that are "obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory, or promote sexually explicit material or violence."
Even as social media followers and supporters of either of the duchesses continue to troll the other with offensive and rude comments often bordering on slander, the almost-balletic guidelines seem to underplay the issue, taking an admonitory tone instead. How very British! Consider this: "We reserve the right to determine, at our discretion, whether contributions to our social media channels breach our guidelines. We reserve the right to hide or delete comments made on our channels, as well as block users who do not follow these guidelines."
It is a start, though. The fact that the royal family felt compelled enough to publish such a set of guidelines points to the mayhem that social media is letting lose through unfiltered comments, unhinged opinion, and unhealthy debate. It's one thing to have an opinion on an issue and voice it at the appropriate forum in a suitable language, and quite another to indulge in what can only be seen as a smear campaign with disparaging remarks and unsubstantiated arraignments. More often than not, social media conversations of the day seem to spiral into an irrelevant and, at times, a depraved volley of deranged notions.
The trolls with their offensive and inflammatory remarks, incendiary comments and provocative criticism have become the bane of social media. These online bullies have led to the shutting down of many a constructive conversation on social platforms. How to deal with them? Try reasoning with them with hard, cold facts. Use humour as a shield. And if nothing else works, block and/or ban them. Whatever you do, though, don't bite the bait. Just keep calm and carry on tweeting.