Prince Andrew made a bold move on Monday, becoming the first member of the British Royal Family to join Twitter.
Under the handle @TheDukeOfYork, the Prince gained 10,000 followers within hours of opening the account, according to the Washington Post.
Members of the Twittersphere have responded with mixed reactions. Some users pointed out his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reports the BBC, while others jokingly confused him with a pub by the same name.
“Welcome to my Twitter account – AY” reads his first tweet. The BBC says that if a tweet is signed “AY,” it has been written by the Prince himself.
TV presenter Eamonn Holmes suggested that the account needed “a more personal touch to be effective.”
Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II’s third child, served as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy for 22 years and was the UK’s trade envoy until 2011.
His decision to join he social media site coincided with the beginning of the Duke of York Award for Technical Education.
“He was in fact the first member of the British Royal Family to tweet on the British Monarchy (account) when he visited Tech City. The logical next step was to tweet individually,” a spokesperson said.
In response to questions about the abusive tweets aimed at the Duke, he added, “The duke is a champion of free speech. For him it's about telling people what he's doing.”
The Duke clearly cares about his work. The account tweeted the above picture with the caption "The Duke with inspiring students at Black Country UTC."
Images: WikiCommons
