The British royal family is always about rules and protocols, both formal and informal. And ever since Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton joined the family, information about things like who has to curtsy to who and whether or not they’re allowed to close their own car doors have become subjects of fascination. Now, in a joint message from Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, Prince William and Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the royals are laying down the rules for commenters on their respective social media channels: @RoyalFamily, @ClarenceHouse, and @KensingtonRoyal..

The new social media community guidelines are likely a response to the increasingly negative interactions in the comments section, most prominently around commentary about Middleton and Markle. Even a casual glance at comments on posts about the two show some rather heated exchanges that can often become nasty and defamatory. This new announcement would seem to be an attempt to reign in the trolls.

“The aim of our social media channels is to create an environment where our community can engage safely in debate and is free to make comments, questions and suggestions,” the guidelines read. “We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities.” Basically, they’re looking for a common sense of decorum that is often lost on the Internet by laying out specific rules—and consequences.

They say that comments must not:

• Contain spam, be defamatory of any person, deceive others, be obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory or promote sexually explicit material or violence.
• Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
• Breach any of the terms of any of the social media platforms themselves.
• Be off-topic, irrelevant or unintelligible.
• Contain any advertising or promote any services.

If you break any of the above, they can hide or delete your comments or block you altogether. On a more serious note, obviously related to the safety of members of the family, they “reserve the right to send any comments we deem appropriate to law enforcement authorities for investigation as we feel necessary or is required by law.”

Hopefully this will squelch some of the nasty commentary happening around the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex. And it seems a perfect time to remind everyone that you can indeed have a preference for one woman without “hating” or demonizing the other—or just love them both, like we do.

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