• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox
  • Bisexual ‘Love Island’ Star Megan Barton Hanson Rakes In $1.5 Million On OnlyFans
  • Judge tosses suit from 36 congregations looking to leave Methodist church over LGBTQ
  • Howard Stern Yearns For Comedian Jon Stewart To Run For President: ‘The Most Trusted Newsman In The Country’

Sacha Baron Cohen ADL Speech Blasts Mark Zuckerberg in Blistering Rebuke of Hate-Facilitating ‘Propaganda’ Platforms: WATCH

Towleroad November 22, 2019 Leave a Comment

Sacha Baron Cohen ADL

Sacha Baron Cohen ripped Mark Zuckerberg and the “propaganda machine” platforms of Facebook, Twitter, Google for facilitating hate online and allowing it to flourish. Cohen made the remarks in a keynote speech to the Anti-Defamation League. Cohen was receiving the group’s International Leadership Award.

Said Baron Cohen: ‘Think about it. 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 Goebbels 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 the basic facts upon which democracy depends.’

Baron Cohen blasted a speech given by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month: ‘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 racists, misogynists, anti-Semites and child abusers. But I think we could all agree that we should not be giving bigots and pedophiles a free platform to amplify their views and target their victims. Second, 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 “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. If a neo-Nazi comes goose-stepping into a restaurant and starts threatening other customers and saying he wants kill Jews, would the owner of the restaurant be required to serve him an elegant eight-course meal? Of course not! The restaurant owner has every legal right and a moral obligation to kick the Nazi out, and so do these internet companies.’

video
play-rounded-fill
Link
typorama 6 copy

Topics: History, Society, towleroad More Posts About: anti-defamation league, facebook, hate speech, Mark Zuckerberg, Sacha Baron-Cohen, Twitter

Related Posts
  • ‘Our best face’: How Trump-backing Jan. 6 ‘marshals’ ditched their pink vests and helped stage an insurrection
  • No, US President Biden Did Not Make Transphobic Remarks
  • White supremacists behind over 80% of extremism-related U.S. murders in 2022
  • Judge tosses suit from 36 congregations looking to leave Methodist church over LGBTQ

    Judge tosses suit from 36 congregations looking to leave Methodist church over LGBTQ

    Published by The Charlotte Observer CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A lawsuit by dozens of conservative United Methodist churches in western North Carolina wishing to break away from their governing body was thrown out of court Tuesday by …Read More »
  • Howard Stern Yearns For Comedian Jon Stewart To Run For President: ‘The Most Trusted Newsman In The Country’

    Howard Stern Yearns For Comedian Jon Stewart To Run For President: ‘The Most Trusted Newsman In The Country’

    Published by OK Magazine mega Howard Stern knows who should run for president in 2024: former The Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart. “When Jon Stewart hosted The Daily Show, they said that he was the most …Read More »
  • Arkansas enacts law restricting school bathroom use by transgender people

    Arkansas enacts law restricting school bathroom use by transgender people

    Published by Reuters (Reuters) – Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday signed a law targeting the trans community, prohibiting transgender people from using the restroom that matches their gender identity at public schools. The bill …Read More »
  • Madonna Lets Loose On Horseback As She Mocks Haters With Remix Of Her Viral Grammys Speech: Watch

    Madonna Lets Loose On Horseback As She Mocks Haters With Remix Of Her Viral Grammys Speech: Watch

    Published by OK Magazine MEGA If you can’t beat them, join them! Madonna hopped on the hater train and mocked her critics by re-sharing a remix someone made of her now-viral Grammys speech. “If they call …Read More »
Previous Post: « Gay Man’s Parents Asked to Identify All the Men Who Have Slept with Their Son: WATCH
Next Post: Conservative Group Says Underwear Brand’s Gay Ad Has ‘Contaminated’ Christmas »

Primary Sidebar

Adjacent News

  • ‘Our best face’: How Trump-backing Jan. 6 ‘marshals’ ditched their pink vests and helped stage an insurrection

    ‘Our best face’: How Trump-backing Jan. 6 ‘marshals’ ditched their pink vests and helped stage an insurrection

  • Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill author facing up to 35 years in prison

    Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill author facing up to 35 years in prison

  • Trump’s ‘nutjob’ allies are pushing for Mar-a-Lago standoff with feds: report

    Trump’s ‘nutjob’ allies are pushing for Mar-a-Lago standoff with feds: report

Good Trash: Going to Read It Somewhere, Y'know

  • Gwyneth Paltrow says rectal ozone therapy has been ‘very helpful’

    Gwyneth Paltrow says rectal ozone therapy has been ‘very helpful’

  • Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana were arrested for impersonating police officers

    Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana were arrested for impersonating police officers

  • Samantha Ronson reacts to the news that her ex Lindsay Lohan is pregnant

    Samantha Ronson reacts to the news that her ex Lindsay Lohan is pregnant

RSS Partner Links

  • An error has occurred, which probably means the feed is down. Try again later.

Most Recent

  • Bisexual ‘Love Island’ Star Megan Barton Hanson Rakes In $1.5 Million On OnlyFans

    Bisexual ‘Love Island’ Star Megan Barton Hanson Rakes In $1.5 Million On OnlyFans

  • Judge tosses suit from 36 congregations looking to leave Methodist church over LGBTQ

    Judge tosses suit from 36 congregations looking to leave Methodist church over LGBTQ

  • Howard Stern Yearns For Comedian Jon Stewart To Run For President: ‘The Most Trusted Newsman In The Country’

    Howard Stern Yearns For Comedian Jon Stewart To Run For President: ‘The Most Trusted Newsman In The Country’

  • Arkansas enacts law restricting school bathroom use by transgender people

    Arkansas enacts law restricting school bathroom use by transgender people

  • Madonna Lets Loose On Horseback As She Mocks Haters With Remix Of Her Viral Grammys Speech: Watch

    Madonna Lets Loose On Horseback As She Mocks Haters With Remix Of Her Viral Grammys Speech: Watch

  • Wendy Williams Spotted Drinking At NYC Gay Bar Months After Rehab Stint

    Wendy Williams Spotted Drinking At NYC Gay Bar Months After Rehab Stint

  • JoJo Siwa realised she was gay at Disney World

    JoJo Siwa realised she was gay at Disney World

  • Biden picks his 2024 path — right down the middle

    Biden picks his 2024 path — right down the middle

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd

Footer

Copyright © 2023 · Log in

×