Following the death of Queen Elizabeth, monarch of the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth realms, which includes England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, huge swathes of the internet have become a field of tributes.
Bare and black are the style of the day, at least for the whole multimillion apparatus that is the British monarchy. The Queen of the United Kingdom and many other sovereign nations for seven decades, Elizabeth died at the ripe old age of 96 in Balmoral castle after she was placed under medical supervision earlier Thursday, according to Buckingham Palace officials who wrote about the queen’s health in the morning.
BBC broadcasters was wearing black before the news actually dropped, hinting at dire news. Of course, the official Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and more were all tuned to the news as soon as it became official. But as soon as the monarchy made the official announcement, practically all websites affiliated with the royal family flipped over into mourning mode.
The main royal website displays a black page reading simply “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”
The website is effectively down while they make “appropriate changes,” likely tied to remembering Elizabeth while elevating then-Prince — now-King Charles III.
Other websites are similarly down. The online shop for the royal collection is also down. Trying to enter the Royal Collection Trust website also displays a black screen with a picture of their multi-decade monarch. The official site for the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall is similarly down.
This isn’t just solid lines of communication from the British royals. This was all part of the plan, according to an extensive report from The Guardian. After the top royal passes, and after the prime minister is contacted (in this case the only just instituted Liz Truss), the public wasn’t likely made aware for some time until finally, a footman in mourning clothes pins a black-edged notice to the gate. The BBC will have activated its radio alert transmission system. RATS also happens to be referred to as the “royal about to snuff it” alarm. The Guardian’s report mentions specifically that the website will turn into the black death mask version we can see now.
The one exception to this, as of reporting, is the official site for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle. The site does not yet mention their grandmother’s passing, and seems to have been outside the lines of communication considering the instantaneous response of practically every other royal site.