Actor Sacha Baron Cohen Rips Facebook and Social Media for Being Greatest Propaganda Machine in History

The "Borat" actor Sacha Baron Cohen launched a full-throated attack against tech companies and accused them of allowing hate speech to proliferate on their platforms in a 25-minute speech to the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday night.

Cohen said a "handful of internet companies" were facilitating "the greatest propaganda machine in history."

Though Cohen mentioned Google, Twitter, and Facebook in his speech, his sharpest criticism was reserved for Mark Zuckerberg.

Cohen referred to a speech Zuckerberg gave at Georgetown University last month outlining where he thinks Facebook should draw the line on regulating free speech on its platform. Cohen dismantled Zuckerberg's speech point by point.

"First, Zuckerberg tried to portray this whole issue as 'choices around free expression.' That is ludicrous," Cohen said. "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."

The comedian added that while the First Amendment prevents the government from limiting free expression, private companies have control over what they allow.

"If a neo-Nazi comes goose-stepping into a restaurant and starts threatening other customers and saying 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 the Nazi out, and so do these internet companies," he said.

Cohen also criticized Facebook's decision to allow political ads on its platform even if they contain misinformation.

"Fortunately, Twitter finally banned them, and Google, today I read, is making changes too," he said. "But if you pay them, Facebook will run any political ad you want, even if it's a lie."

"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',” he said.

Cohen suggested that social-media platforms should not immediately publish content and that they should give themselves more time to scrutinize posts.

"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."