Instagram adds official warning to Kate and William's controversial photo

Instagram adds official warning to Kate and William's controversial photo

WATCH NOW: Princess Kate's photo drama 'has made royal conspiracies mainstream'

GB News
Dorothy Reddin

By Dorothy Reddin


Published: 15/03/2024

- 10:32

Updated: 15/03/2024

- 10:40

Kensington Palace has still not released the original unedited photograph

  • Princess Kate's Mother's Day photograph is still up on social media
  • Prince William took the picture of his family which Kate edited
  • Have your say and comment now: Should X add a community note to the Mother's Day image?

Instagram has added an official warning to Princess Kate and Prince William's controversial photo.

The Princess of Wales went viral on social media after Kate, 42, admitted to editing her Mother's Day family photograph.


The picture showed Kate surrounded by Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor.

It was originally reported that the Prince of Wales took the photo, however, fans immediately noticed lots of discrepancies within the image.

Prince William and Princess Kate

Prince William and Princess Kate have received backlash from their Mother's Day photo

Getty

For example, Princess Charlotte's wrist did not align with her jumper, and Prince Louis' fingers looked mismatched.

Subsequently, six international photo agencies recalled the picture from their wire system.

Kate later took the blame for the editing, writing on X: "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.

"I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.

Kate MiddletonKate posing with her three children in a photo that was digitally edited by the princess

Kensington Palace / X

"I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C."

The original photograph is still available on the Prince and Princess of Wales's Instagram and X pages.

Instagram, however, has inserted an official warning below the picture, writing: "Altered photo/video. The same altered photo was reviewed by independent fact-checkers in another post."

The warning continued: "Independent fact-checkers say that the photo or image has been edited in a way that could mislead people, but not because it was shown out of context."

Kate Middleton

The Instagram post has had a warning placed there by independent fact checkers

Instagram

The platform lists the fact-checker as EFE Verifica.

On the other hand, social media site X, formerly Twitter, has not added a community note, where contributors can add context such as fact-checks under a post.

It comes as photo agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) said Kensington Palace is no longer a "trusted source" after releasing a doctored photo of Kate and her three children.

They added that their decision to "kill" the photo of Kate was a rare move, normally reserved for North Korean or Iranian propaganda.

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When asked if Kensington Palace is still seen as a trusted source, Phil Chetwynd, the global news director of AFP, told the BBC: "No. Absolutely not.

"Like with anything, when you’re let down by a source, the bar is raised and we’ve got major issues internally."

He added that to issue a kill notice is a "big deal," saying "to kill something on the basis of manipulation" is rare and happens maybe once per year.

Chetwynd said "kill" notices were usually issued for news from the "North Korean news agency or the Iranian news agency, to give you some background or context".

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