Gates welcomes “fact checkers” for social media companies.
QUICK FACTS:
- Tech billionaire Bill Gates has again put his support behind “trusted sources” and “fact checkers” on social media.
- The Microsoft founder made his comments during the “Goalkeepers 2022” event, where he called out “misinformation.”
- Gates was specifically hard on misinformation about masks, vaccines, and rumors shared about him during the pandemic.
- The billionaire said the debate about misinformation is tragic because it reduced compliance with advice being given by “trusted sources” during the pandemic.
WHAT GATES SAID:
- “I’d say the biggest tragedy is that it [misinformation] fragmented society where certain sources, if they told you to wear a mask, that was the last thing you were going to do,” Gates said. “Or if they told you, you know, get the vaccine, particularly to protect, reduce transmission to elderly people, they didn’t comply. It is a phenomena that held us back and hurt us in a pretty dramatic way.”
- The billionaire dismissed the “conspiracy theories” about himself, saying, “This whole tracking thing, why would I want to track you?” Gates asked. “I don’t know, you know. Do I have time to track all these people?”
- However just one day later, at the “Forbes 400 Philanthropy Summit,” Gates admitted that he has a group dedicated to tracking what people say about him online.
BACKGROUND:
- Many of the Facebook fact-checkers whose work is included in warning labels attached to Facebook postings have received hundreds of millions of dollars in financing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by Gates.
- Facebook postings with these warning labels attached see a 95% decrease in click-through rates.
