Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Newsy: The Queen is Friendless on Facebook

Her Royal Highness is on Facebook, but you can't friend her. You can only "like" her.

How would you like be friends with the Queen? Correction, you can’t be friends with the Queen, but you can “like” her. The British monarch now has a Facebook page. 

So what happens if you “like” her? New York’s News 12 has the details on exactly what you’ll find: “Britain’s Queen has launched a series of official pages offering the website’s 500 million users daily updates on her engagements, the royal household has said. The 84-year-old British Monarch will be featured in videos, photos, news items. Users can leave messages or comments for Buckingham palace on the site and find out details of royal events close to their home.”

And who knew the Queen could cause such frenzy on the web – The U.K.’s Telegraph says people were waiting for exactly 8 AM when the page went up to “like” the monarch: “There will be a public list of friends of the page, prompting a race to become the first to press the ‘like’ button on Monday morning.”

So the Queen has a public page for everyone to see. But the anchors on Fox Business joke about what she might have on her private page – and who she might be friends with if she were accepting friends:

ANCHOR 1 - “Has the queen reached out and befriended others? Who do you think she would?”
ANCHOR 2 - “I don’t know if she has yet or not. I’m sure Prince Charles has his own Facebook page”
ANCHOR 1 - “And then does she have a private page and a public page? Can you imagine the pictures on the private page?”
ANCHOR 2 - “They will put pictures on there –“
ANCHOR 1 - “But the public page.”
ANCHOR 2 - “Yeah well of course. Of course there’s not private page with the Queen.”

HRH has been creating something of an image makeover in the last couple of years – A writer for CNET says that started after Helen Mirren played her in the critically acclaimed movie “The Queen”. Since then, she’s been trying to reach out to the lowly masses: “I fancy, though, that the queen's advisers ought to loosen her reins just a little. The queen's deep fondness for horses and other farm animals surely makes her a prime candidate for FarmVille. Please imagine the astonishment among the populace to discover that Britain's queen is looking after her donkeys just as well as you are.”

But The Stir is a little critical of the set-up, saying the page is pretty much a love-fest toward the monarch with no room for criticism or any kind of negative public opinion: “… her ’about me’ warns ‘Please note that any offensive comments will be deleted.’… With no sign that Facebook will add a dislike button anytime soon… it's one place where her royal majesty can continue to receive all the thumbs up she needs to make her feel like a queen...”

So what do you think of this latest technology venture? Will you like the Queen?

Writer: Alyssa Caverley


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