Sacha Baron Cohen says Zuckerberg would have allowed Hitler to target Jews if Facebook existed in the 1930s
Actor-comedian Sacha Baron Cohen slammed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday for not fact-checking political ads on its site, saying that if Facebook was around during the 1930s, he would have allowed Hitler to post advertisements targeting the Jews.
The British comedian also took a swipe at the heads of tech giants Google and Twitter for acting as "the greatest propaganda machine in history" for hate groups and allowing fake news to overtake real news online. He made the statement during his keynote address before the anti-Defamation League (ADL) in New York on Thursday.
Cohen also denounced the popular social media sites and search engines for "facilitating... all this hate and violence" that has led to "surging" hate crimes and a rise in "murderous attacks on religious and ethnic minorities."
"All this hate and violence is being facilitated by a handful of internet companies that amount to the greatest propaganda machine in history," the 'Borat' star said during his speech in New York. The actor blasted Zuckerberg and five other executives, calling them "the Silicon Six." The group includes Google CEO Sundar Pichai; Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin; YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki; and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
"The Silicon Six—all billionaires, all Americans—who care more about boosting their share price than about protecting democracy," Cohen said. "This is ideological imperialism - six unelected individuals in Silicon Valley imposing their vision on the rest of the world, unaccountable to any government and acting like they’re above the reach of law," the Daily Mail reported.
Although the actor-comedian took aim at all the leaders of the "Silicon Six," he particularly singled out his criticism for the Facebook CEO likening him to Julias Caesar.
"It’s like we’re living in the Roman Empire, and Mark Zuckerberg is Caesar," he said. "At least that would explain his haircut."
"[Zuckerberg] said that he found posts denying the Holocaust 'deeply offensive,' but he didn’t think Facebook should take them down 'because I think there are things that different people get wrong'," Cohen said.
"At this very moment, there are still Holocaust deniers on Facebook, and Google still takes you to the most repulsive Holocaust denial sites with a simple click. One of the heads of Google once told me, incredibly, that these sites just show 'both sides' of the issue. This is madness."