A speech by actor Sacha Baron Cohen went viral when he attacked big tech and social media platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter for being “the greatest propaganda machine in history”, and said these companies make it easier for “hate groups to recruit”.
Cohen was speaking at a ceremony in New York where he was presented with the Anti-Defamation League’s International Leadership Award.
Cohen’s garnered plenty of controversy over the years — he referred to characters he’s played like Borat, Bruno and Ali G, saying his comedy has often been “juvenile” and “puerile” but pointed out that they also exposed homophobia, anti-Semitism, racism and a willingness to buy into conspiracy theories.
“Today around the world, demagogues appeal to our worst instincts,” he said. “Conspiracy theories once confined to the fringe are going mainstream…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 on religious and ethnic minorities.”
He continued: “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.”
Cohen pointed out that this is why fake news “outperforms” real news, since studies show lies spread faster than truth. And on the Internet, everything appears “equally legitimate”. “I’m speaking up today because I believe that our pluralistic democracies are on a precipice and that the next twelve months, and the role of social media, could be determinant,” he said.
Cohen brought up a speech by Mark Zuckerberg which “warned against new laws and regulations on companies like his”. Cohen slammed Zuckerberg’s arguments as “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.”
Zuckerberg had, in so many words, compared regulations on companies to “the most repressive societies”. Cohen said there are “six people who decide what information so much of the world sees”: Zuckerberg at Facebook, Sundar Pichai at Google, at its parent company Alphabet, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Brin’s ex-sister-in-law, Susan Wojcicki at YouTube and Jack Dorsey at Twitter. Calling them the “Silicon Six”, Cohen said they’re all billionaire Americans who “care more about boosting their share price than about protecting democracy”. He called it “ideological imperialism”.
He concluded: “If we make that our aim — if we prioritise truth over lies, tolerance over prejudice, empathy over indifference and experts over ignoramuses — 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.”
Watch the speech in full.