During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bill Gates has been one of the most active figures: he provides accurate information to the community in lockdown, promotes research to find a cure for Covid-19, and more. However, Gates’s actions have led to baseless suspicions.
According to a survey by The New York Times and Zignal Labs, a social media data analysis company: the name Bill Gates has appeared 1.2 million times in conspiracy theories related to the Covid-19 pandemic; these conspiracy theories have spread across social media and many TV shows from February to April.
The number 1.2 million means that Gates appeared 33% more than the second most famous conspiracy theory linking 5G networks to Covid-19.
There are three platforms that have seen many posts trying to connect Bill Gates with Covid-19, namely YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The New York Times revealed that in the early months of this year, there were 16,000 Facebook posts on this subject, garnering nearly 900,000 likes and comments.
On YouTube, the top 10 videos spreading fake news about the connection between Bill Gates and Covid-19 have reached nearly 5 million views in just the last two months. The content of the videos focuses on points such as: Gates created the virus to profit from the vaccine, Gates is a member of some mysterious organization wanting to reduce the population, or Gates is helping to build a global surveillance network.
Those who believe in this conspiracy theory think that Bill Gates’s warnings about past pandemics are evidence that the Microsoft co-founder is in cahoots with those who orchestrated the creation of Covid-19. This group includes members of conspiracy theory networks on social media, vaccine skeptics, and individuals easily misled online.
Bill Gates has declined to comment on the accusations. Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, expressed disappointment to The New York Times, stating that this should be a time for us to collaborate to save lives, not to spread false rumors that disrupt society.