Sacha Baron Cohen Calls Out Social Media as ‘the Greatest Propaganda Machine in History’

In a recent Anti-Defamation League keynote, Cohen outlines how internet companies have fueled bigotry and hate speech. But he has a solution.

IndieWire, 21 Nov 2019:

Sacha Baron Cohen has courted controversy his entire career, portraying characters, from Ali G and Borat to Bruno, that have pissed off all groups from left to right.

He’s an equal-opportunity offender, but his alter-egos have long served to expose the hypocrisies of society by mocking humanity’s worst tendencies. His 2018 Showtime series “Who Is America?” tackles humankind’s dark side head-on by bait-and-switching real-life figures to catch them in their blind spots. In the show, he got Dick Cheney to sign a waterboarding kit, former chief justice Roy Moore to take a pedophile lie-detector test, and “The Bachelor” star Corinne Olympios to endorse the training of child soldiers on camera.

But at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never Is Now Summit on Anti-Semitism and Hate, Baron Cohen took off his comedy hat when honored with the ADL’s International Leadership Award. He used the platform to deliver a keynote outlining how social media and the information it disseminates have fueled the bigotry dominating the current political moment in the U.S. (Watch full video of the speech below.)

“Yes, some of my comedy, OK probably half my comedy, has been absolutely juvenile and the other half completely puerile,” he said. “I’m just a comedian and an actor, 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.

“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,” Baron Cohen said, adding that “it’s time for a fundamental rethink of social media and how it spreads hate, conspiracies and lies.”

In his speech, Baron Cohen pointed to recent remarks from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg warning of the dangers of regulating free expression on the internet. (“As long as our governments respect people’s right to express themselves, as long as our platforms live up to their responsibilities to support expression and prevent harm, and as long as we all commit to being open and making space for more perspectives, I think we’ll make progress,” Zuckerberg said in his Georgetown University address in October.)

“Some of these arguments are simply absurd,” Baron Cohen said. “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.

“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 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. The Silicon Six — all billionaires, all Americans — who care more about boosting their share price than about protecting democracy,” Baron Cohen said, likening their reign on internet information “ideological imperialism.”

Baron Cohen’s thought? “Instead of letting the Silicon Six 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.”

The comedian also urged that these “Silicon Six” abide by the same practices that journalism does, or is supposed to, at least. “It’s time to finally call these companies what they really are — the largest publishers in history. And here’s an idea for them: abide by basic standards and practices just like newspapers, magazines and TV news do every day. We have standards and practices in television and the movies; there are certain things we cannot say or do,” he said.

He also said something that likely any publishing outlet can relate to: “Slow down. Every single post doesn’t need to be published immediately… Is having every thought or video posted instantly online, even if it is racist or criminal or murderous, really a necessity? Of course not!”

Finally, Baron Cohen concluded his speech by telling the room, “If we make that our aim — if we prioritize 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.”

How practicable that advice is remains an open question, but in diagnosing what Baron Cohen perceives to be an information epidemic, he’s now a high-profile public voice in an ongoing debate that, as we head into the 2020 election, won’t be going away anytime soon.

Comments

WORSETHANITLOOKS
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 9:06 PM
Agreed. SBC is British. There is no equivalent of our First Amendment guaranteeing free speech in the UK. Placing restrictions on speech is a common sentiment in England. Criticizing Islam is now criminal in London. No joke. Americans are spoiled. We take our Bill of Rights for granted but its incredibly unique. Social media companies are guilty of other sins but restricting free speech is a non-starter.

MICOP
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 10:10 AM
OMG he nailed it so perfectly. Bravo Sacha. This needs to be amplified over and over again. Stop giving these billionaire 6 free content and let them follow true journalistic principles. One of the best things I’ve read in a long time.

TCHANCER
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 9:21 AM
I agree with the points, but I don’t think Cohen is the best messenger for them. i stopped watching him with the borat thing, where he demeaned a Romanian village of dirt-poor people, after lying to them about the purpose of filming them; he mocked them for no apparent reason beyond their extreme poverty and their ethnicity. it was such an assault on human dignity i’ve never bothered to seek what brilliant message or rationale is supposed to be behind it.

CRISPYOR
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 3:59 AM
As much as I truly enjoy Cohen’s comedy and trickery, I agree with you 100 per cent, and was thinking the same thing all the while reading this article. This is yet another example of an identically instigative type yelling ‘hey that’s no fair!’ when something registers as offensive to their personally cultivated opinion of what is appropriate derogation. Sorry Mr. Cohen but free speech comes at a cost, you should know this, because you’ve made millions upon millions of dollars off of the concepts of free speech and exploitation.

CRAIG
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 12:06 AM
Funny stuff coming from one of the biggest homophobes in Hollywood…I don’t why this bigot hasn’t been cancelled yet.

WEAK ARGUMENTS
NOVEMBER 21, 2019 9:42 PM
First I wanted to enthusiastically agree with Sacha, but the more I thought about his words, the less convincing some of them looked….like these:

“We have standards and practices in television and the movies; there are certain things we cannot say or do… if we prioritize truth over lies, tolerance over prejudice, empathy over indifference…”

Now, if the guy, who wrote, directed and performed the infamous “Brüno” (correct spelling), says such things, I can’t take it seriously anymore, because that so-called ‘satire’ broke most taboos, was full of lies and it actually helped to spread all old clichés about gay people: That they have to touch strangers’ bodies, that they are extremely ‘feminine’, that they are hyper-sexualized creatures, that their sexuality is so strange and slightly perverse…and that all Austrians love to wear leather pants…of course !

“Brüno” is a great example of a ‘satire’ gone wrong, because it didn’t challenge, but re-enforced the homophobia of society. The movie makes you feel that homophobia is justified, because homos are really weird, aggressive and perverse dudes !

That movie alone disqualifies Cohen forever from speaking about issues concerning media ethics, because he is either a hypocrite or incompetent.

And one more thing: One person’s ‘conspiracy theory’ is another one’s groundbreaking truth…How do you want to justify removing them from public, but spreading hate-speech like “Brüno”, Sacha ? It’s absurd.

CRAIG
NOVEMBER 21, 2019 8:42 PM
The fact is he normalized that shitty behavior long before social media existed and became popular. He’s the biggest hypocrite.