5 Banned TED Talks List: Talks That Went Viral!

What is TED talk?

There has been a lot of hype created about TED talks in recent past. A Cyrus Mistry shined from it and in a way or another, Apple too has its glorious past beginning relations with TED! TED is the abbreviated form of Technology, Entertainment, Design. A platform to express your ideas with a slogan that says “Ideas worth spreading”, TED was founded in 1984 but the annual conference started from 1990. (Learn more about TED)

One can deliver their talk within an 18 minute time limit. It can be on any topic related to science, entertainment or design which has gone viral throughout the globe. But gradually controversies have come up that it has shifted from its slogan and has become a political tool. Some talks that once went viral are now banned and so on! But as the internet takes care of everything, we still have those talks with us.

Let the curtain get unveiled!

Some controversial banned TED talks that went viral

Here is a list of the highly debated TED talks. Out of the curiosity, it is natural to have quests regarding what made the talk so controversial. How a technology, entertainment and design talk turn offensive to few? Answering all the questions out here!

1. Sarah Silverman used the adjective retarded with a child
In her 2010 talk, this comedian was spotted speaking the word ”retarded” child. A child cannot be retarded and this is what hurt the sentiments of listeners. To hear it from her own voice go and check with the link.

2. Nassim Taleb called TED a “monstrosity that turns scientists and thinkers into low-level entertainers , like circus performers”:
He has been accused TED for initially not publishing his talk on the website which was purely on cosmetics, which was why he commented the above.

3. Nick Hanauer’s talk on 1st march 2012:
The talk was named like “Rich People Don’t Create Jobs”. From the viewer’s point of view, the talk was much inclined towards politics and never came online. However after hearing the live conference and when more people came to know about the talk, a large number of people demanded and petitioned the rights to watch it, then only TED published it.

His summary of the talk explained that the rich are always disproportionately benefited and there is always been an income disparity. Then he tried to explain why rich people are unable to create a job for the job less.

4. Graham Hancock’s Talk:
The forth censored talk is named as “The War on Consciousness”. He mentioned about how he stopped his 24 years Cannabis addiction with another drug Ayahuasca to develop his consciousness in his talk. Unable to believe it? Want to listen from his voice?

5. Rupert Sheldrake’s talk:
The talk is mentioned as “The Science of Delusion”. In his talk he wanted to highlight the questions on current scientific dogmas and challenges to rethink about it. To know more about his talk just click on the link.

If we ignore the controversial TED talks there are many beneficial outcomes have come from TED talks, such as TEDMED which is an annual conference held to discuss about health and medicinal aspects, TEDWomen is a women oriented conference to discuss about gender biasedness, health concern etc.

After all the web buzz of the controversial talk of Nick Hanauer, it was found that it was not a case of banning but TED organizers decided that particular presentation was under rated.

Whereas Sarah Lacy have accused TED for the price of ticket for the attendees, poor treatment towards the less important attendees and one of her friend was even “de-invited to TED”.