New reports reveal that the online misinformation, scrutiny and conspiracy theories regarding Kate Middleton and her health hit a fever-pitch before the Princess of Wales revealed she has cancer and is undergoing treatment as a result, in part, of a Russian-based disinformation campaign.
Martin Innes, director of the Security, Crime and Intelligence Innovation Institute at Cardiff University in Wales, told both NBC News and The New York Times that his team uncovered at least 45 online accounts affiliated with Doppelgänger, a Russian disinformation operation, had posted conspiracy theories and calls for more transparency from Kensington Palace regarding Middleton, her health, and her whereabouts.
"It’s not as though these Russia-linked accounts were driving the story; they were jumping on it," Innes told NBC News. "It was already being framed in conspiracy terms, so foreign actors don’t need to set that frame—that’s already there to exploit."
An onslaught of conspiracy theories dominated the internet after Kensington Palace announced Middleton underwent a planned abdominal surgery and brief hospitalization. Absent from the public eye, theories about the princess became circulating the internet, including everything from the claim that the Princess of Wales was actually filming some reality TV, dating Pete Davidson, had "Freaky Friday-ed" with the King, and had been found in an internet-famous house.
