Conspiracy Theories: How I Became Fake News | Richard Gutjahr | TEDxMarrakesh

[Music] this is a story about love and hate a story about trust and despair a story about the internet and how it can be actually turned into a weapon this is my story my name is Richard gutiar and according to what you can read on Google or Facebook about me I'm a terrorist and a mass murderer I'm a member of a secret society called the New World Order a little while ago my family and I we moved to southern France we found ourselves a beautiful place like near the city of nice we lift that kind

of a French life that we always dreamed of like with our little kids picking up the French language Bonjour my mom Papa it was just beautiful it was living in in a dream until that very dream turns into a nightmare it was over July 14th last year the French National Day and we decided to take a hotel at the seaside in order to watch the festivities the parade's direkt great fireworks so I standing on the balcony of that hotel and taking pictures with my smartphone while my wife took the children downstairs to the street because

they wanted to buy balloons across the street and I was filming and I'm showing you some footage of what I was filming and maybe you remember that day then under the sound of massive gunfire from outside my wife and the children made it back to the hotel room miracle see unharmed they locked themselves into the bathroom while I was heading downstairs in order to find out what was going on I'm a journalist after all that is my job so the pictures downstairs in the lobby they were just horrifying people covered in blood people in shock

and outside the building there were bodies lying on the street 86 people died that night hundreds were injured thousands were traumatized by the truck plowing through the crowds only eight days later I was back in Munich the city where I grew up and where I work every other night I present the news at the News Channel public German television so I was back in Munich I actually initially wanted to take a break but then I thought maybe you know like you go back into your daily routine that might help to you like get over those

images that are haunting you so I was sitting in the car when all of a sudden my eldest daughter called me and she said dad I'm at the local shopping mall and there are gunshots I was only ten minutes later I found myself at the very entrance of that shopping mall my daughter called me up again and she said she made it she made it to her grandmother's house which is nearby so she was safe and sound and me standing in front of her shopping mall surrounded by heavy aren't police forces ten people died that

day hundreds were injured by a mass panic the whole city of Munich was in a lockdown for hours and here I was yet again in the middle of it all reporting little did we know my family and I that the real terror for us was yet about to begin and it began harmless like very unspectacular it began with a few tweets that popped up at the very next morning like on our social media accounts no those messages like popped up and became wild and wilder in our own private accounts there were people claiming like from

all over the world that we my family and I were actually massage agents and we conducted those crimes those acts of terror and that we are actually part of a secret elitist society who wants to overthrow the world now I'm a journalist you know I'm familiar with shitstorms but this really was beyond any regular shitstorms this was a tsunami and just that you understand how it feels like when your name pops up every morning when you open your Twitter your Facebook or even YouTube here's just a little glimpse on all the videos that you still

find online when you google my name Richard good job let's talked about dives in the last few weeks of social media he is actually a German journalist his wife his wife is a current Israeli politician Melissa Esposito con una ex parliamentary Israel IANA elaborate Roe CNN ad Washington and it gets even juicier she an ex Mossad agent that Israeli intelligence people you must be wondering who this pretty-looking young woman is you cannot make this up the daughter of Richard good JA let me tell you something little girl you're a and your father does not love

you and we were talking about the fake Munich attack the fake nice attack among so many fake attacks richard gujjar is a traitor to humanity expose him for being the liar and the treasonous bastard that he is just a quick message for our boy Richie Richie Richie Rich's because I know you're watching this rich and just so you understand if you're going to proceed with your actions you do know the repercussions don't you your daughter hint hint you intense this is a war if you're listening to this Richard Duty art welcome to your help this

family has no shame people this is a traitorous criminal family this is gonna follow them around for the rest of their stupid lives when you become the target of conspiracy theorists there are several stages that you go through in the beginning we're just trying to ignore this my wife and I we said let's keep a low profile so no Twitter no Facebook for online junkie for me this was like cold turkey but it was doable guess what that didn't work because the longer we kept silent the wilder those accusations actually became and all of a

sudden even friends relatives workers started to ask me questions such as well Richard if you're like really innocent why don't you speak up now if I would speak up of course they would say yeah all right he claims to be innocent everybody who's guilty would say so so you see the problem here right no matter what you were doing in such a situation it's going to be worse it's a Casca esque situation so the weeks and months went on and the rumors and the accusations became even wilder so we're facing the second stage of what

you go through humor you cannot help sometimes to face insanity with humor here's a blogger who claims that actually the Oslo bomber like Anders Breivik he didn't do it it was actually me who killed those 77 teenager's back then in Norway and how did young Sherlock find that out telling you because of the similarity of our ears why didn't the police see that so the third stage that you go through once you are like targeted by a conspiracy theorist this indignation now I'm a strong believer and defender of free speech hell my whole profession as

a journalist depends on freedom of speech it is one of the most valuable rights that we all possess and we really need to take action that nobody nobody takes that away from us but slandering harassing innocent people online and offline that has nothing to do with freedom of speech I mean this is personal this is as personal as I can get you can destroy lives with that now I turn to Facebook and to Google the parent company of YouTube and I told them look there are like hundreds of videos floating your net this cannot be

something yet that you had up on your mind when you establish those platforms right so please I mean remove them well guess what they didn't deliberately said no we're not gonna do that because for Facebook and Google and platforms like that there's only one religion it's that is scale scale scale like grow more and more audience and my family nighters happened to be collateral damage so the most depressing moment for me actually was when the powers that be at my work said well Richard that was great reporting that you did that day in Nice and

later in Munich we had great ratings on our television station but whatever happened to you like after that and it has actually nothing to do with us that was a moment maybe when I broke and I fell into a deep depression when I asked myself what what what does words like good and bad wrong and right actually mean anymore in this society and I needed really good reasons these days in the morning to find the reason actually to get up in the morning now right when I was thought I thinking about like even quitting my

job and you know like canceling and erasing all my social media accounts all of a sudden and message appeared on my computer screen and it read hello Richard my name is Lanny I saw the online chatter on YouTube about you and I feel for you because I've been there five years ago Lanny lost his six-year-old son Noah at the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newton Connecticut that day a lone gunman killed 20 elementary school kids ages five and six and six teachers ever since then Lenny and his the other parents get harassed by despicable rumors

and harassment people so-called hoaxer say this school massacre never took place that this was all a setup a staged event that his son actually never existed that his son actually is just an actor Lenny and I we talked many many times online and he told me about the so called truthers so called hoaxers people who who get a kick out of it to have that power over other people and who actually also get paid for their work by YouTube now Lenny told me look Richard you can either continue whining or you start to get back

on your feet and start fighting it's gonna be hard it's gonna be long it's gonna be painful but you can actually do something against it and so I did not on it only I took one lawyer I took two lawyers and from that day on they took care of Facebook and of Google so we keep on like telling them this is wrong this is wrong we have this court order this court order so we're really a pain in the neck and you know what it feels really good to have somebody speaking up for you finally

but that is not the whole deal you know what does feel even better to get yourself out of your misery to actually find your voice again and and come to a place like this and finally here I am speaking about my my last year in public and I feel very thankful for TEDx Marrakesh I feel very humbled to be here I feel alive despite all the pain all the tears all the discussions that my family and I had gone through throughout the last year here's some lessons that we've learned first be alert anyone I mean

it any one of you can become a target of conspiracy theory at any time over anything yeah it's it's not just politicians it's not just actors or journalists like we all are celebrities online and we're all facing the same threats second yes expect the worst from people now I know the Internet is a Miracle's thing it's it's it's beautiful it's connecting people brings out the best of us but it also does the opposite but don't give up your belief in humanity just yet because yes it's true people can be despicable horrifying and a nasty but

they can also surprise you at any time so accept the help that is coming from places you didn't even know from for don't expect the cavalry to come to your rescue meaning just because you spend so much time at your work you devote so much time at your working place you know when things come go bad and people do not benefit from you your employer will actually drop you like a hot potato have that on your mind so better seek new allies and it's funny like the institutions that I never ever trusted and had believed

in actually were you know my biggest supporters such as police officers lawyers and believe it or not an insurance company yeah in Germany there is you can actually buy litigation insurance that is they cover all your legal fights they pay your lawyers and the courts to to sue your adversaries so this can't comes in really really handy six be prepared ahead of time once the hits the fan you're better have done your homeworks meaning you better look out for a good lawyer and the therapist before you need them because at the mental stage yet that

you're in when everybody's just shouting at you you have no energy for doing proper research seven now this is gonna be a hard one I know because actually I just want to love everybody and I want everybody to love me but this one is really important that is maybe the toughest lesson I had to learn show no mercy identify the pack leaders like the worst of the scum out there and hit them fast hit them hard and hit them with everything you got why because others will notice eight be patient legal fights they can take

months even years so just remember yourself you're in here for a marathon now point number nine actually my lawyer asked me to slip in and well here it is choose your opponents wisely so if you get insulted my lawyer says please make sure that you only get insulted by rich wealthy people because you can actually sue a fortune out of them and your lawyer he or she would be really happy for that because they usually work for a contingency fee maybe the most important lessons of them all is the next one and this one took

me a long time to realize but it is also true and it reads it's not your fault like there are times when you're like really miserable really depressed and you ask yourself what did I do wrong but here's the thing it's nothing that you have done wrong it's not about you it's about them and actually it's it's about all of us as a society so we all possess a superpower a superpower to fight this and here it is empathy to put ourselves in the shoes of one another and ask ourselves how would I feel being

that very situation Martin Luther King once said it very beautifully in the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends I think that is very true I think we can all step up the game and don't leave the Internet to the bullies I don't want this to become the new normal and we all have the powers to prevent that from happening we just need to learn to speak up and taking care for one and another so in the beginning I said this is a story about the internet

but that actually isn't true this is not about the Internet this is not about technology this is about everyone this is about you and you and me all of us this is our story let's make it count thank you [Applause]