Thank you very much. Thanks for everyone who stood up.
Unnecessary but very flattering.
Thank you, Jonathan for your very kind words.
Thank you, the Anti-Defamation League
for this recognition and your work in fighting racism, hate and bigotry.
And to be clear, when I say racism, hate,
and bigotry I'm not referring to the
names of Stephen Miller's labradoodles.
(Laughs)
Now, I realize that some of you may be thinking:
"What the hell is a comedian doing speaking at a conference like this?"
I certainly am.
(Laughs)
I've spent most of the past two decades in character. In fact
this is the first ever time that I've
stood up and given a speech as my least
popular character: Sacha Baron Cohen.
And I have to confess, it is terrifying.
I realized that my presence here may also
be unexpected for another reason.
At times some critics have said my
comedy risks reinforcing old stereotypes.
The truth is I've been passionate about
challenging bigotry and intolerance
throughout my life. As a teenager in
England I marched against the fascist
National Front and to abolish apartheid.
As an undergraduate I traveled around
America and wrote my thesis about the
Civil Rights Movement with the help of
the archives of the ADL. And as a
comedian I've tried to use my characters
to get people to let down their guard
and reveal what they actually believe,
including their own prejudice. Now I'm
not gonna claim that everything I've
done has been for a higher purpose. Yes,
some of my comedy. okay, probably half my
comedy has been absolutely juvenile. And
the other half completely puerile.
But I admit there was nothing
particularly enlightening about me as
Borat from Kazakhstan, the first fake
news journalist, running through a
conference of mortgage brokers while I
was completely naked.
But when Borat was able to get an entire
bar in Arizona to sing ♪ throw the Jew
down the well ♪ it did reveal
people's indifference to anti-semitism.
When as Bruno, the gay fashion reporter
from Austria,
I started kissing a man in a cage fight
in Arkansas, nearly starting a riot, it
showed the violent potential of
homophobia. And when disguised as an
ultra woke developer I proposed building
a mosque in one rural community
prompting a resident to proudly admit "I
am racist against Muslims" it showed the
growing acceptance of islamophobia.
That's why I really appreciate the
opportunity to be here with you. Today,
around the world, demagogues appeal to
our worst instincts. Conspiracy theories
once confined to the fringe are going
mainstream. It's as if the age of reason,
the era of evidential argument is ending
and now knowledge is increasingly
delegitimized and scientific consensus is
dismissed. Democracy, which depends on
shared truths, is in retreat. And
autocracy, which depends on shared lies,
is on the march. Hate crimes are surging
as are murderous attacks and religious and
ethnic minorities. Now what do all these
dangerous trends have in common?
I'm just a comedian and an act, I'm not a
scholar but one thing is pretty clear to
me: all this hate and violence is being
facilitated by a handful of Internet
companies that amount to the greatest
propaganda machine in history.
The greatest propaganda machine
in history.
Let's think about it. Facebook,
Facebook, YouTube and Google Twitter and others
they reach billions of people the
algorithms these platforms depend on
deliberately amplify the type of content
that keeps users engaged stories that
appeal to our baser instincts and that
trigger outrage and fear it's why
YouTube recommended videos by the
conspiracist alex jones billions of
times it's why fake news outperforms
real news because studies show that lies
spread faster than truth and it's no
surprise that the greatest propaganda
machine in history
has spread the oldest conspiracy theory
in history the lie that Jews are somehow
dangerous as one headline put it
just think what gurbles could have done
with Facebook on the internet everything
can appear equally legitimate Breitbart
resembles the BBC the fictitious
protocols of the Elders of Zion look as
valid as an ADL report and the rantings
of a lunatic seem as credible as the
findings of a Nobel Prize winner we have
lost it seems a shared sense of basic
facts upon which democracy depends when
I as the wannabe gangsta led asked the
astronaut Buzz Aldrin what would they
like to walk on the Sun
the joke worked because we the audience
shared the same facts if you believe the
moon landing was a hoax the joke doesn't
work when Borat got that bar in Arizona
to agree that Jews control everybody's
money and they never give it back the
joke worked because the audience shared
the fact that the depiction of Jews as
miserly is a conspiracy theory
originating in the Middle Ages but when
thanks to social media conspiracies take
hold it is easier for hate groups to
recruit easier for foreign intelligence
agencies to interfere in our elections
and easier for a country like Myanmar to
commit genocide against the ringa
now it's actually quite shocking how
easy it is to turn conspiracy thinking
into violence in my last show who is
America
I found an educated normal guy who had
held down a good job but who on social
media repeated many of the conspiracy
theories their president Trump using
Twitter has spread more than 1700 times
to his 67 million Twitter followers the
president even tweeted that he was
considering designating and Tifa who are
anti fascists who march against the
far-right as a terror organization so
disguised and then as an Israeli
anti-terrorism expert : lol harmalard
yalla let go
disguised as him I told my interviewee
there at the Women's March in San
Francisco and Tifa were plotting to put
hormones into babies diapers in order to
make them turns again there and this man
believed it I instructed him to plant
small devices on three innocent people
at the March and explained that when he
pushed a button
he'd trigger an explosion that would
kill them all they weren't real
explosives of course but he thought they
were I wanted to see would he actually
do it the answer was yes he pushed the
button and thought he had actually
killed three human beings Voltaire was
right when he said those who can make
you believe absurdities can make you
commit atrocities and social media lets
authoritarianism now in their defense
these social media companies have taken
some steps to reduce hate and
conspiracies on their platforms that
these steps have been mainly superficial
and I'm talking about this today because
I believe that our pluralistic
democracies are on a precipice and in
the next 12 months and the role of
social media could be determinant now
British voters will go to the polls
while online
Spira says promote the despicable theory
of the great replacement that white
Christians are being deliberately
replaced by Muslim immigrants Americans
will vote for president while trolls and
BOTS perpetuate that it's the disgusting
lie of a Hispanic invasion and after
years of YouTube videos calling climate
change a hoax the United States is on
track a year from now to formally
withdraw from the Paris Accords a sewer
of bigotry and vile conspiracy theories
that threaten our democracy in to some
degree our planet this can't possibly be
what the creators of the internet had in
mind I believe that it's time for a
fundamental rethink of social media and
how it spreads hate conspiracies and
lies
now last month however Mark Zuckerberg
of Facebook delivered a major speech
that not surprisingly warned against new
laws and regulations on companies like
his well some of these arguments are
simply part of my French let's
count the ways
first Zuckerberg tried to portray this
whole issue as choices around free
expression that is ludicrous this is not
about limiting anyone's free speech this
is about giving people including some of
the most reprehensible people on earth
the biggest platform in history to reach
a third of the planet freedom of speech
is not freedom of reach sadly there will
always be racist misogynist anti-semites
and child abusers but I think we can all
agree that we should not be giving
bigots and pedophiles a free platform to
amplify their views and target their
victims
second Mark Zuckerberg claimed that new
limits on what's posted on social media
would be to pull back on free expression
this is utter nonsense the First
Amendment says that and I quote Congress
shall make no law abridging freedom of
speech however this does not apply to
private businesses like Facebook
we're not asking these companies to
determine the boundaries of free speech
across society we just want them to be
responsible on their platforms now if a
neo-nazi comes goose-stepping into a
restaurant and starts threatening other
customers and say he wants to kill Jews
would the owner of the restaurant a
private business be required to serve
him an elegant eight course meal of
course not
the restaurant owner has every legal
right and indeed I would argue a moral
obligation to kick that Nazi out and so
do these internet companies
now third Mark Zuckerberg seemed to
equate regulation of companies like his
to the actions of the most repressive
societies incredible this from one of
the six people who decide what
information so much of the world sees
Zuckerberg it's at Facebook sundar
pichai at Google at its parent company
alphabet Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Bryn's ex-sister-in-law
Susan Wojcicki at YouTube and Jack
Dorsey at Twitter the silicon six all
billionaires all Americans who care more
about boosting their share price than
about protecting democracy this this is
ideological imperialism six unelected
individuals in Silicon Valley imposing
their vision on the rest of the world
unaccountable to any government and
acting like they're a bomb for the reach
of law it's like we're living in the
Roman Empire and Mark Zuckerberg is
Caesar at least that would explain his
haircut
now here's an idea instead of letting
the silicon sects decide the fate of the
world let our elected representatives
voted for by the people of every
democracy in the world have at least
some say 4th Zuckerberg speaks of
welcoming a diversity of ideas and last
year he gave us an example he said that
he found post denying the Holocaust
deeply offensive but he didn't think
Facebook should take them down because I
think there are things that different
people get wrong at this very moment
there are still Holocaust deniers on
Facebook and Google still takes you to
the most repulsive Holocaust denial
sites sites with a simple click one of
the heads of Google in fact told me that
these sites just show both sides of the
issue this is madness
to quote Edward r murrow one cannot
accept that there are on every story to
equal and logical sides to an argument
we have unfortunately millions of pieces
of evidence for the Holocaust it is an
historical fact and denying it is not
some random opinion those who deny the
Holocaust aim to encourage another one
still zugerberg says that people should
decide what is credible not tech
companies but our time when two-thirds
of Millennials say that they haven't
even heard of Auschwitz how are they
supposed to know what's credible how are
they supposed to know that the lie is a
lie there is such a thing as objective
truth facts do exist and if these
Internet companies really want to make a
difference they should hire enough
monitors to actually monitor work
closely with groups like the ADL and the
n-double-a-cp
insist on facts and purge these lies and
conspiracies from their platforms
now v when discussing the difficulty of
removing content Zuka berg mark
zuckerberg
asked where do you draw the line yes
drawing the line can be difficult but
here's what he's really saying removing
more of these lies and conspiracies is
just too expensive these are the richest
companies in the world and they have the
best engineers in the world they could
fix these problems if they wanted to
Twitter could deploy an algorithm to
remove more white supremacist hate
speech but they have reportedly haven't
because it would eject some very
prominent politicians from their
platform maybe that wouldn't be such a
bad thing
the truth is these companies won't
fundamentally change because their
entire business model relies on
generating more engagement and nothing
generates more engagement than lies fear
and outrage
so it's time to finally call these
companies what they really are the
largest publishers in history so here's
an idea for them abide by basic
standards and practices just like
newspapers magazines and TV news do
everyday we have standards and practices
in television and the movies there are
certain things we cannot say or do in
England I was told that alley G could
not curse when he appeared before 9 p.m.
here in the US the Motion Picture
Association of America regulates and
rates what we see I've had scenes in my
movies cut or reduced to abide by those
standards now if there are standards and
practices for what cinemas and
television channels can show then surely
companies that publish material to
billions of people should have to abide
basic standards and practices to
take now take the issue of political ads
on which facebook have been resolute
fortunately Twitter finally banned them
and Google today I read is making
changes to but if you pay them Facebook
will run any political ad you want even
if it's a lie and they'll even help you
micro target those lies to their users
for maximum effect under this twisted
logic if Facebook were around in the
1930s it would have allowed Hitler to
post 30-second ads on his solution to
the Jewish problem so here's a good
standard and practice Facebook start
fact-checking political ads before you
run them stop micro-targeted lies
immediately and when the ads of false
give back the money and don't publish
them
here's another good practice slow down
every single post does not need to be
published immediately Oscar Wilde once
said we live in an age when unnecessary
things are our only necessity but but
let me ask you is having every thought
or video posted instantly online even if
it's racist or criminal murderous really
a necessity of course not the shooter
who massacred Muslims in New Zealand
live streamed his atrocity on Facebook
where it then spread across the internet
and was viewed likely millions of times
it was a snuff film
brought to you by social media why can't
we have more of a delay so that this
trauma inducing filth can be caught and
stopped before it's posted in the first
place
finally Zuckerberg said that social
media companies should live up to their
responsibilities but he's totally silent
about what should happen when they don't
by now it's pretty clear they cannot be
trusted
to regulate themselves as with the
Industrial Revolution it's time for
regulation and legislation to curb the
greed of these high-tech robber barons
in in every other industry a company can
be held liable when their product is
defective
when engines explode or seat belts
malfunction car company's recalled tens
of thousands of vehicles at a cost of
billions of dollars it only seems fair
to say to Facebook YouTube and Twitter
your product is defective you are
obliged to fix it no matter how much it
costs and no matter how many moderators
you need to employ in every under in
entry in every other industry you can be
sued for the harm you caused publishers
can be sued for libel people can be sued
for defamation I've been sued many times
I'm being sued right now by someone
whose name I won't mention because he
might see me again but social media
companies are largely protected from
liability for the content their users
post no matter how indecent it is by
section 230 F get ready for it the
Communications Decency Act it's absurd
fortunately internet companies can now
be held responsible for pedophiles who
use their site to target children so I
say let's also hold these companies
responsible for those who use their
sites to advocate for the mass murder of
children because of their race or
religion
and maybe fines are not enough maybe
it's time to tell Mark Zuckerberg and
the CEOs of these companies you already
allowed one foreign power to interfere
in our elections
you already facilitated one genocide in
the anime do it again and you go to jail
in the end it all comes down to what
kind of world we want in his speech
Zuckerberg said that one of his main
goals is to uphold as wide a definition
of freedom of expression as possible it
sounds good
yeah our freedoms are not only an end in
themselves they're also the means to
another end as you say here in the US
the right to life liberty and the
pursuit of happiness but today these
rights are threatened by hate
conspiracies and lies so allow me to
leave you with a suggestion for a
different aim for society the ultimate
aim of society should be to make sure
that people are not targeted not
harassed and not murdered because of who
they are where they come from who they
love or how they pray
if we make that our aim if we prioritize
truth over lies tolerance over prejudice
empathy over indifference and experts
over ignoramus --is then maybe just
maybe we can stop the greatest
propaganda machine in history we can
save democracy we can still have a place
for free speech and free expression and
most importantly my jokes will still
work thank you very much
[Applause]