TED Backs Down: People Power Wins the Day Against Censorship

By Graham Hancock

Following popular outcry in response to TED’s censorship of recent TEDx talks by Rupert Sheldrake and me – and against the accompanying slanders on our reputations – TED is forced to retract its position and put the talks back online in a “reserved” area of their site. By then, however, pirate copies already existed and from these, in an example of guerrilla action on the internet, hundreds of people independently uploaded the talk to their own Youtube channels.  Just one of these many Youtube channels independently hosting the talk in defiance of TED is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b6-0yW7Iaw

My presentation may be viewed here, and has reached in excess of 10,000 views in 5 days (the original presentation on the TEDx Youtube channel had reached 132,000 views before it was deleted by TED).

Still, I continue to press for the full restitution of my and Rupert Sheldrake’s talks to the TEDx Youtube channel.

These talks went down a storm at a recent TEDx conference in Whitechapel, London – ‘The War on Consciousness’ (Hancock) and ‘The Science Delusion’ (Sheldrake)  - but were removed Thursday 14 March from the TEDx Youtube channel , with TED citing “factual and scientific errors”, none of which they were subsequently able to substantiate, sparking a public internet outrage.

In response, following TED’s rebuttal, I posted this on Facebook:

“I want to put on record my immense appreciation and respect for the tremendous efforts made by so many members of my Facebook community to get this injustice righted, not only by their posts here but by their engagement on the TED website and the blog posts they have made there. I am touched and heartened, buoyed up and encouraged by this remarkable level of support and it is a sign of the times that our voice has been heard.

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