The actor playing Borat: YouTube and Facebook have driven people to extremism and violence.

Buzz

In a recent interview with Edward Felsenthal of Time magazine, renowned actor Sacha Baron Cohen, famous for his role as Borat, has spoken out against the tech giants who control the largest social networks on the planet for profiting from misinformation, leading to violence and even murder. Cohen referenced the Capitol Hill riot on January 6th. The 49-year-old British actor highlighted the tech conglomerates' culpability, immediately after the US presidential election, in allowing widespread dissemination of false information about the election results on social media platforms:

“The lies spread through Facebook, through YouTube, through Twitter, and those who control these machines know full well that they are turning a blind eye to lies that help generate powerful movements, and they know violence will be the result. So, at that moment, they understand very well what would happen at Capitol Hill in January.”

Unlike the characters in his movies, what made Sacha Baron Cohen famous, like Borat, Ali G, or Bruno, in real life, Cohen is extremely serious and has a very clear and logical reasoning. He refers to the heads of America's tech giants as “The Silicon Six”, the leaders of the five major tech conglomerates, including YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, even though the service falls under Google. At the helm of “The Silicon Six” is none other than Mark Zuckerberg.

Cohen believes that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act needs to be revised. This is the provision that shields tech giants or social networks from legal repercussions when people share misleading or fabricated content. Content such as denying the Holocaust, antivax sentiments, or climate change denial need to be tightly regulated, if not outright banned.

Baron Cohen says: “In other industries, companies can be sued for the harm they cause. Publishers can be sued for libel or defamation. I myself have been sued hundreds of times. In fact, right now, I’m being sued by a notorious judge,” Baron Cohen alludes to Roy Moore, the Alabama Senate candidate accused of sexual misconduct. But meanwhile, social media companies seem to avoid much of that scrutiny, and “Facebook cannot be held accountable for the things they cause, including the loss of lives.”

Targeting Zuckerberg, Baron Cohen states: “One person controls Facebook. It has no board of directors, just Zuckerberg alone. Not only that, when Zuckerberg is gone, control of Facebook will go to his offspring. It's like an ancient system, the reigns of emperors. He's making decisions on how 3 billion people access information, and at any moment, Facebook can shut down all sources of information in a country like in Australia.”

According to The Daily Beast

The content is developed by the Mytour team with the aim of customer care and solely to inspire travel experiences. We do not take responsibility for or provide advice for other purposes.

If you find this article inappropriate or containing errors, please contact us via email at [email protected]