How to Get Your TED Talk Banned: Free book serialisation, Part 5

This book tells the story of how doing an 11-minute TED talk changed my perspective of myself and other people, almost got me slammed up in jail, and could have cost me my job.?

Rallying the Troops

Meanwhile, a speaker at the previous year’s TEDxBasel who had helped me rehearse my talk was appalled by the decision not to publish. She rallied support amongst speakers and volunteers and began an on-line petition to try to persuade the organisers to change their minds.

The petition gathered around 300 signatures and the following reaction from one of the TEDxBasel volunteers:

Great initiative to have the petition! And based on the Basel expats community reaction, it is gathering steam.?

I was a volunteer with the speakers’ team, but I quit over how Jane and Harrison chose to handle Peter's talk and then the interaction with Peter. Nevertheless, I reached out to them once again to ask them to do the right thing.?

Jane and Harrison are nice people and they did put a lot of heart and soul into this, however TEDxBasel has become bigger than they can handle with their experience as educators. I do not think they ever envisioned the consequences of not posting Peter's talk. What I find rather puzzling is that they are convinced that they did/still doing the right thing. I do not know if this is because of their conviction or just that now they need to stick the course.

As someone who put so much time and energy into TEDxBasel, I am heartbroken to see how things turned out.?I am definitely spreading the word from my side and happy to see that the video has reached so many views.

In the end if the video is a success, Peter would be vindicated, and the talk will fulfill its purpose: to reach as many people as possible!

This person also wrote:

As someone who grew up in a communist country under a brutal regime, I very much disagree with "Peter did not follow the rules, let's take Peter to the public square and stone him to death."?

There were mistakes done on both sides of this issue. At the same time civilized discussion, reasonable arguments and compromise were available to both parties.?

TEDxBasel is a community and the two people who hold the license do not represent the Basel moral police and should not endeavour into carrying out retaliation against a speaker for personal gratification.?

At the same time, Marty Hirsch, who is an exquisite writer, decided to tackle the topic in a LinkedIn article with the provocative title “Exposing the Tyranny of TEDxBasel”, which gained over 4,000 views.

The Empire Strikes Back

I was heartened by the groundswell of support my cause seemed to be gathering. Then, four days after I privately shared the video of my talk via my YouTube channel, I received a “copyright strike” from YouTube, naming TEDxBasel as having lodged the complaint. My talk was promptly removed (YouTube takes contested videos down immediately after a “copyright strike” pending resolution of any dispute).

With my talk taken down from public viewing, I was now receiving requests to see it from people who had been following the unfolding saga on LinkedIn.

Additionally, TEDxBasel had just sent out a bold message to its mailing list proudly proclaiming that “You can now watch all of TEDxBasel 2016” with links to all the beautifully produced and edited videos. All the talks from the event bar one.

The removal of my video from YouTube spurred me on even more. Undeterred, I found another platform on which to publish my talk. One that I thought would be safer in this game of TEDx cat and mouse. So I re-issued the link to my contacts and the re-posted talk gathered a further 800 views in the 24 hours it remained there. The owners of this publishing platform received a legal warning from TEDxBasel and it was duly removed.

It seemed to me that there were no lengths TEDxBasel wasn’t prepared to go to prevent my idea from being spread.

To rub salt into my already sore wounds, I was forwarded an invitation that had been sent to all speakers and volunteers at TEDxBasel for a “special viewing” of the videos from the event at a cinema in Basel. Speakers could celebrate the publishing of their videos online by raising a glass of champagne at a photo opportunity at the Tinguely Fountain, a quirky piece of art next to the theatre in Basel. Clearly, someone had omitted my name from the invitation list. I saw red when I spotted a Facebook post featuring a photograph of my fellow speakers smiling and raising a glass with Jane and Harrison at their exclusive gala screening.

That same week, I was on a business trip to San Francisco. On a Friday night after a long week’s work and a couple of more glasses of wine than usual, I was still stewing after the removal of my video. In my fury from my Californian hotel room, I published a Facebook and LinkedIn post I would regret the following morning. In the post, I urged anyone who agreed that my talk should be published to text the word “bullshit” to the mobile phone numbers of the TEDxBasel organisers, and I posted their numbers.

If you’ve ever done something regrettable through the lens of alcohol, you’ll recognise my thoughts upon awakening, fully clothed. I checked my phone and read words of warning from my friends and supporters in the European time zone. You’re probably familiar with the “what on earth have you done?” tones. I received a text message from my loyal neighbour in France telling me that he had duly done his texting duty.

Realising that I’d let my anger get the better of me and that this move had the potential to backfire, I promptly deleted the posts.

Still stewing all the way back to Switzerland, on my return I decided to post my talk on my personal Facebook page instead. Less than four hours later, it was again removed as a result of action by TEDxBasel.

To be continued tomorrow...