'Handmaidens to authoritarianism': Watch this heroic Guardian report call out 'the gods of Silicon Valley' for destroying democracy

Guardian and Observer reporter Carole Cadwalladrcaptivated the crowd yesterday at the TED talks. Speaking directly to the ‘Gods Of Silicon Valley’, she accused them of being responsible for the destruction of democracy.

Cadwalladr is the journalist responsible for the amazing Cambridge Analytica whistleblower exposé: ‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower. What she learned in her year long research into Cambridge Analytica, Facebook and the ‘dark forces’ undermining our democratic system of government will leave you breathless.

Our democracy is broken, our laws don't work anymore,and it's not me saying this,it's our parliament published a report saying this.This technology that you have invented has been amazing.But now, it's a crime scene.And you have the evidence.And it is not enough to say that you will do better in the future.Because to have any hope of stopping this from happening again,we have to know the truth.

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And what you don't seem to understand is that this is bigger than you.And it's bigger than any of us.And it is not about left or right or "Leave" or "Remain" or Trump or not.It's about whether it's actually possibleto have a free and fair election ever again.Because as it stands, I don't think it is.

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And so my question to you is, is this what you want?Is this how you want history to remember you:as the handmaidens to authoritarianismthat is on the rise all across the world?Because you set out to connect people.And you are refusing to acknowledgethat the same technology is now driving us apart.

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And my question to everybody else is,is this what we want:to let them get away with it,and to sit back and play with our phones, as this darkness falls?

Watch her entire extraordinary fifteen minute presentation here: Facebook’s role in Brexit and the treat to democracy