Speaking in his own voice.
Two speeches and one essay, reproduced in full so the words stand on their own. Then what he has given, and the campaigns he has joined.
The subject is an old one for him. His prize-winning undergraduate thesis at Cambridge, on the cooperation between Black and Jewish communities during the civil rights movement, was researched at the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta. In 2023 he joined the King family at the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial for the speech below.
November 21, 2019
Keynote address at the ADL Never Is Now summit
His first major speech as himself. Accepting the ADL's International Leadership Award, he argued that a handful of internet companies had become the greatest propaganda machine in history and asked that they be held to the same standards as publishers.
“Democracy, which depends on shared truths, is in retreat, and autocracy, which depends on shared lies, is on the march.”
On the front line with the King family, Rev. Al Sharpton and Robert Smith at the 60th anniversary March on Washington, Lincoln Memorial, August 26, 2023.
August 26, 2023
Remarks at the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington
Speaking as himself at the anniversary march, he described what people had said to him while he was in character, called racism and antisemitism lies with the same root, and asked the crowd to choose truth and empathy over hate.
“We always have a choice. Today, as others spread lies, we choose truth. As others stoke conspiracies, we choose facts.”
We Must Save Democracy From Conspiracies
TIME, October 8, 2020
Written four weeks before the 2020 US election, the piece argues that conspiracy theories spread on social media, Facebook in particular, are a threat to democracy, and describes what he saw while filming Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.
Giving
Donations on the record, with the figures as reported by the organisations and by his team.
Over the past decade
A decade of support for children and families in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia
His giving supported the vaccination of 287,000 children in Idlib, Syria, reached 500,000 children and families in Somalia during a severe hunger crisis, and funded the building of a maternity hospital in Hodeidah, Yemen, which is still running.
Source: International Rescue Committee press release, October 24, 2024
$500,000 to the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children USA for Sudan
He gave $500,000, split between the IRC and Save the Children USA, for the hunger crisis in Sudan; the release also records earlier support in Syria, Iraq, Yemen (a maternity hospital in Hodeidah) and Somalia.
Source: International Rescue Committee press release, October 24, 2024
Undated in the team's document
$250,000 to CARE for people displaced by the conflict in Sudan
More than 20,000 people displaced by the conflict in Sudan gained access to assistance. Cash support for food reached 1,000 displaced households, about 6,000 people, meeting the planned target in full. Mobile medical teams provided healthcare and nutrition services for more than 13,400 people, including antenatal care, vaccinations and malnutrition screening and treatment. 600 dignity kits went to newly displaced women and children.
November 2022 to January 2023
$250,000 to Concern Worldwide for water, sanitation, health and nutrition in the Mogadishu region
Water, hygiene and sanitation and health and nutrition work in the most vulnerable parts of the Mogadishu region, including Deynile, Khada and Wadajir. From November 2022 to January 2023 the programme reached more than 68,000 people: 20,426 drought-affected people received health or nutrition treatment; 48,699 people were supplied with clean drinking water for 65 days; 8,116 households were trained in hygiene practices by Concern-trained community health promoters.
A planeload of PPE for NHS workers and first responders
In 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he sent a planeload of personal protective equipment to National Health Service workers and first responders in the UK.
Source: Jewish News, 2020
$1 million to Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee for Syrian children and refugees
He and Isla Fisher gave $500,000 to Save the Children to fund measles vaccination for more than 250,000 children in northern Syria and $500,000 to the International Rescue Committee for Syrian refugees. The IRC's 2024 press release later put the vaccination figure at 287,000 children in Idlib.
Source: TIME, December 2015
Campaigns
Campaign work on the record, each with its source.
Jewish creators' call with TikTok executives
He joined a private roughly 90-minute video call of more than 30 Jewish celebrities and creators with TikTok's Adam Presser and Seth Melnick, telling the executives that the platform was creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis.
Pressing Facebook to remove Holocaust denial
In his 2019 ADL speech and through 2020 he pressed Facebook to remove Holocaust denial. On October 12, 2020 Facebook announced it would remove content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.
Source: Meta newsroom, October 12, 2020
Stop Hate for Profit, co-founder
He co-founded Stop Hate for Profit, a coalition of civil rights groups that calls out social media companies that profit from conspiracy theories, racism and hateful rhetoric on their platforms. He froze his Instagram account for 24 hours on September 16, 2020 as part of its week of action.
, TIME
Read Sacha Baron Cohen's Speech on Standing Against Hate: 'We Always Have a Choice'Full text of his remarks at the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, as prepared.
, The Washington Post
The 'Silicon Six' spread propaganda. It's time to regulate social media sites.Op-ed calling for regulation of the largest social media companies.