ADL International Leadership Award Presented to Sacha Baron Cohen at Never Is Now 2019

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Sacha Baron Cohen is the well-deserved recipient of ADL’s International Leadership Award, which goes to exceptional individuals who combine professional success with a profound personal commitment to community involvement and to crossing borders and barriers with a message of diversity and equal opportunity.

Over 100 years ago Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote: “Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant.” Through his alter egos, many of whom represent anti-Semites, racists and neo-Nazis, Baron Cohen shines a piercing light on people’s ignorance and biases.

https://www.adl.org/news/article/sacha-baron-cohens-keynote-address-at-adls-2019-never-is-now-summit-on-anti-semitism

copyright © 2019 ADL

Thank you very much.
Thanks to 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.

(Audience 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.

(Audience 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.

(Audience Laughs)

(Audience Cheers)

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.

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.

(Audience Laughs)

And the other half completely puerile.

But...
(Audience Laughs)

I admit there was nothing
particularly enlightening

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]