TED talks have platformed literal fraudsters many times. It's just rich, well connected people roleplaying some idea of a "thought leader" organization.
TED is a well-oiled feel good scam that pretends that you can learn something that will change your life/your mind by watching a 15 minutes video.
It has managed to instill in the popular culture that those videos are educational. No, they are not. It’s simply a brand earning a lot of money on the free speakers hoping to get some Karma and organizers paying lot of money to just have the brand.
(I gave two TEDx talk myself. Not TED, of course but still)
