Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has revealed that he is funding a new effort that seeks to censor so-called vaccine “disinformation” on social media.
Gates says he is establishing a 3,000-person strong army that will search online for “crazy stuff” about vaccinations before pressuring Big Tech companies to block it.
He says his social media “unit” will also “propagate accurate vaccine information” which social media platforms will be urged to promote.
Gates argues that vaccine misinformation spread like wildfire online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He says that he finds it “bizarre” that people don’t trust his theories about vaccines and the pandemic, despite the fact that he’s not a qualified doctor or scientist.
According to Gates, the lack of social media censorship is to blame for the distrust for allowing “conspiracy theories” to spread.
“That’s so unexpected and almost so bizarre,” Gates said.
“Now that I’m back in the physical world … people come up and yell and protest.”
He said it’s “dangerous” when people “cast out” on the key tool that’s being used to save people’s lives and he believes those who own social media platforms have a role to play when it comes to ensuring the truth gets shared effectively.
“When you don’t have the trusted leaders speaking out about vaccines, it’s pretty hard for the platform to work against that,” he admitted.
“So I think we have a leadership problem and we have a platform problem.”
Gates says he hopes his vaccine “disinformation” unit will rid the Internet of opposing information in the future.
He stressed that “good messages” need to be carried forward by “people of trust” in the community, such as political and ethnic leaders.
