Monica Lewinsky Talks Cyberbullying

Monica Lewinsky recently gave the Ogilvy & Inspire keynote speech at Cannes Lions about Cyberbullying, and received a standing ovation. Page Six quotes her speech as follows:

"Like me, at 22, a few of you may also have taken wrong turns and fallen in love with the wrong person, maybe even your boss … Unlike me, though, your boss probably wasn’t the president of the United States of America. Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of my mistake, and I regret that mistake deeply. In 1998 after having been swept up into an improbable romance,  I was then swept up into a political, legal and media maelstrom, that we had never seen before.

This scandal was brought to you by the digital revolution … what that meant for me personally was that overnight I went from being a completely private figure, to a publicly humiliated one worldwide. I was patient zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously. I was branded as a tart, slut, whore, bimbo, floozy and of course ‘that woman,’ I was seen by many but truly known by few … It was hard to remember ‘that woman’ had a soul and was once unbroken.

In 1998 I lost my reputation and my dignity, I lost almost everything, and I almost lost my life.

There were moments for me when it seemed like suicide was the only way to end the ridicule … because of the headlines, my parents knew what I was going through, there was no mistaking it and no escaping it. Today, too many parents have learned of their child’s suffering after it is too late.

A marketplace has emerged where shame is a commodity and public humiliation an industry … Public shaming as a blood sport must stop. It’s time for an intervention on the Internet and in the culture. We need a return to compassion, online we have a compassion deficit, an empathy crisis.

If you were a brand, what brand would you be? That was a question I was asked at a job interview … let me tell you, when you are Monica Lewinsky, that’s a loaded f–king question. But can you imagine what it is like when the brand is you personally, your likeness, your name, your history, your values, your soul. That’s what happened to me in 1998. You are looking at a woman who was publicly savaged for a decade … because of who I was branded.

We can lead each other to a more compassionate, more empowered place, we can help change our behavior, we can all learn from mistakes … and we can together make a society where the sometimes distancing of technology does not remove our humanity. You are the creative engines that will drive forward our culture. Will you help me?”