Harry gets another job as ‘disinformation’ officer

Britain’s Prince Harry — who is often at war with the British press — was on Wednesday announced as a commissioner for a US study into misinformation online.

The non-profit Aspen Institute said it was “honoured” to have the Duke of Sussex as one of the 18 members of its “Commission on Information Disorder.”

The announcement came a day after Harry became Chief Impact Officer at San Francisco life-coaching startup BetterUp as he adds to his growing portfolio of jobs since stepping away from royal duties last year.

As part of the Aspen study, Harry will help conduct a six-month investigation into misinformation and disinformation in the American digital world that will start in April. The commission aims to identify the biggest causes of the sharing and spreading of false information and find solutions to help the government, private sector and civil society respond.

“The experience of today’s digital world has us inundated with an avalanche of misinformation, affecting our ability as individuals as well as societies to think clearly and truly understand the world we live in,” Harry said in a statement.

“It’s my belief that this is a humanitarian issue — and as such, it demands a multi-stakeholder response from advocacy voices, members of the media, academic researchers, and both government and civil society leaders,” he added.

The prince is likely to bring his own experiences of media coverage of his life to the commission.

Harry told US talk show host James Corden in February that he left royal life and moved to the United States with Meghan Markle because the British press was “destroying his mental health.”

The prince has long had a difficult relationship with Britain’s tabloids, blaming press intrusion for contributing to his mother Princess Diana’s death in a car crash in 1997.

Harry and Meghan have filed several lawsuits against newspapers and last April told Britain’s tabloids that they were ending all cooperation with them due to “distorted, false or invasive” stories.

An explosive interview they gave to Oprah Winfrey this month — in which they claimed an unnamed royal had asked how dark their baby’s skin would be — plunged the monarchy into its biggest crisis since the death of Diana.

Meanwhile, Harry’s new boss at BetterUp has said that the British royal likes to be called Harry in the workplace.

“He’s a colleague, he’s a partner, and so we address him as Harry,” said Chief Executive Alexi Robichaux.

Robichaux said he met Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, through a mutual friend in late 2020, and talked about how to encourage mental wellbeing.

“Through a series of conversations over months, (we) really had a lot of shared energy and enthusiasm for how it could be really awesome to find a way to work together and advance the shared mission,” he said.

As well as being an executive, Prince Harry said in a blog post that he was also a user of the service. Robichaux said he and the coach he was paired with are still working together.

As for how much Prince Harry is being paid in his new position, Robichaux declined to say.

“As a private company, you can imagine we don’t disclose compensation information of any of our folks. But I think it’s fair to say he’s deeply invested in the success of BetterUp,” he said.

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