By Pascal Ibe
Claim
During an interview, a journalist cornered Bill Gates, where he was confronted with accusations of stealing Microsoft and making billions from unapproved COVID-19 vaccines.
Verdict
This is FALSE. Our findings showed that It was an edited video shared on social media.
Full Text
A Facebook user named Prince Marvelous Patrick posted on Facebook,a video from TikTok that showed a female journalist confronting Bill Gates with accusations of stealing Microsoft and making billions from unapproved COVID-19 vaccines.
In the video, the journalist confronted Gates with tough questions and accused him of stealing the Microsoft software and promoting an unapproved COVID-19 vaccine, which helped him make billions. The 1:40 minute ends abruptly, with Gates telling the journalist to end it in frustration.
The video posted by Prince Marvelous Patrick on Facebook garnered over 200 likes, 31 comments and more than 210 shares as at Wednesday afternoon.
Verification
First our reporter conducted a Google search, which brought up a video posted by ABC News (Australia) YouTube channel on Jan 31. The outfit worn by Gates and the anchor and the background made it clear that it was the same interview as in the video posted by Prince Marvelous Patrick.
The video title read: “Bill Gates complained to tech companies about ‘laughable’ COVID-19 conspiracy theories | 7.30”.
Here is the link to the YouTube video, and below is a screenshot of the same:
Findings concluded that the video was of the original interview, which Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist conducted, Sarah Ferguson on her current affairs show – 7.30, and released on Jan 31.
The interview ended with Ferguson thanking Gates and the latter nodding.
In the original interview, whose video was shared by ABC News, Ferguson spoke to Gates on the following topics:
1. The rise of artificial intelligence
2. COVID-19 conspiracy theories
3. Elon Musk buying Twitter
4. Climate Change
5. His pledge to give away most of his wealth
Also when watched the video posted on Facebook, CrimeFacts news noticed that the subtitles were played over the faces of the Ferguson and Gates, which made it challenging to observe the difference in lip-sync.
In an article by Tech ARP, according to which the video was created by a TikTok creator called bdti989, who posted it with the caption: “How dangerous AI can be #BillGates #billgates #microsoft #Microsoft #followformore #follow #msdos #uops #ups #ops #world #interview #interviews #artificialintelligence #ai”.
As per the report, the user mentioned using artificial intelligence to create a deep fake video in the comment section.
Conclusion
A viral video showed a journalist confronting Gates with tricky questions in an interview and accusing him of stealing Microsoft software and making billions from unapproved COVID-19 vaccines.
However Crimefacts news found that it was an edited video created by a TikTok user, which was later widely shared on social media with a false claim.
