There is a lot of false talk spread on the Internet, spreading millions of times, about Bill Gates, the founder of the Microsoft group, such as "he invented Coveed-19" and "wants to empty the earth of its inhabitants" and "plant electronic chips in humans."
The famous American billionaire has become the favorite target of conspiracy theorists who, through their posts, benefit from increasing viewership with the outbreak.
Rory Smith, director of research at First Craft, a network of media outlets running anti-misinformation across the Internet, explained that Gates, who became a philanthropist, turned out to be “a voodoo doll in which conspirators from all walks of life” such as needles, “their different theories.”
She described Whitney Phillips of the American University of Syracuse, an American billionaire who was involved 20 years ago through the Gates Foundation in the campaigns of vaccination and epidemic control, as being used as a "scarecrow."
A video clip in English accusing him of, among other things, the desire to "eliminate 15% of the world's population" through vaccines and planting electronic chips in human bodies, gained nearly two million views on YouTube in less than two months. According to Rory Smith, these allegations "increased missilely" between January and April, to the point where the Pseudo-English video directed against Bill Gates is now the most popular publication related to "Covid-19", which has killed more than 300,000 people worldwide, according to For the New York Times,
Misleading allegations can be found all over the world and in all languages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, 4 Chan and Reddit ... and Agence France-Presse has verified more than 12 publications that have achieved viewership High in English, French, Spanish, Polish and Czech.
Through distorted quotes, misleading images and abbreviations, these publications accuse him of wanting to give poisoned vaccine to Africans by paralyzing hundreds of thousands of children and controlling the World Health Organization and using our brains to create virtual currencies.
And if a large part of it circulates before the outbreak of the new Corona virus, the allegations targeting Bill Gates share one point: accusing him of wanting to take advantage of the epidemic such as the "beneficiary of the war" character: controlling the world or increasing its wealth through selling vaccines.
"These theories can reduce people's confidence in health organizations and reduce vaccination rates, which is worrisome," Smith said.
"Any conspiracy theory must reveal its absolute," researcher Kinga Polynchuk Alenius explained on a Helsinki University blog, adding, "Because he criticized the Trump administration and because he was a technology magnate who turned into a philanthropist and is a major promoter and financier of vaccination campaigns and the co-founder of Microsoft, he is a perfect scapegoat for the crisis." .
"Bill Gates did not become the star of conspiracy theories, he was long ago," said Sylvan Delovey, a social psychologist at Rennes University.
He previously accused Bill Gates of being behind the Zika epidemic, as conspiracy theorist said, but thanks to the unprecedented current health crisis, Bill Gates is breaking record levels.
"This is not surprising, given that it is linked to public health issues in various ways with the projects it has launched around the world," said Rory Smith.
Among the theories, Bill Gates created the virus and "evidence?" He had a "patent" and "predicted a pandemic" at a conference in 2015.
These false allegations were also shared by well-known personalities such as French actress Juliette Binoche in overcoming political divisions.
The Bill Gates Foundation has also been criticized for lacking transparency in its management or choice of funding in the scientific journal The Lancet.