Prince Harry joins Aspen Institute commission on the 'information disorder crisis'

Prince Harry
(Image credit: Joe Giddins - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Prince Harry is taking on yet another new gig.

This time, the Duke of Sussex is set to serve as a commissioner for the Aspen Institute's Commission on Information Disorder, joining a group tasked with conducting "a six-month study on the state of American misinformation and disinformation," CNN reports.

Harry on Wednesday said that "the experience of today's digital world has us inundated with an avalanche of misinformation," and so "I'm eager to join this new Aspen commission and look forward to working on a solution-oriented approach to the information disorder crisis."

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The Duke of Sussex, who last year stepped back as a senior member of the British royal family, was one of 15 commissioners announced on Wednesday, while journalist Katie Couric, former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Chris Krebs, and Color of Change president Rashad Robinson will serve as co-chairs. The commission will meet regularly for six months and ultimately deliver "recommendations for how the country can respond to this modern-day crisis of faith in key institutions," the Aspen Institute says.

The announcement comes just one day after Harry joined the coaching and mental health startup BetterUp as its "chief impact officer," and he'll reportedly advocate on mental health issues in that role. Misinformation is also a topic Harry has spoken out about in the past. He and his wife Meghan Markle have blasted British tabloids for what Harry in 2019 described as "relentless propaganda" that is "knowingly false and malicious," and they've filed lawsuits over this reporting.

In his recent bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry also said that a "large part" of the reason he and Meghan left the U.K. was because "the U.K. press is bigoted, specifically the tabloids," adding, "Unfortunately, if the source of information is inherently corrupt or racist or biased, then that filters out to the rest of society."

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan is a staff writer at The Week. A graduate of Hofstra University with a degree in journalism, he also writes about horror films for Bloody Disgusting and has previously contributed to The Cheat Sheet, Heavy, WhatCulture, and more. He lives in New York City surrounded by Star Wars posters.