Bill Gates issues warning over spread of ‘titillating untruths’ on social media
Bill Gates today took aim at social media platforms for allowing the spread of misinformation relating to the coronavirus pandemic.
The business mogul said the Covid-19 crisis had highlighted the “urgent” need to crack down misleading and false information online, which he said spread “so much faster than the truth”.
“There’s certainly a human weakness that very titillating things can spread very quickly and the digital platforms allow them,” he said during the Wall Street Journal CEO Council conference.
But the Microsoft founder acknowledged that tech companies faced the challenge of being “arbitrators” of what material should be allowed to remain alone.
“We’re seeing in a very urgent way the question of how do you restrict that weakness and still preserve free speech,” he said.
Pressed on what measures could be taken, Gates said that “some level of fact checking was valuable”, but warned against the kinds of information control seen in countries such as China.
The billionaire tech mogul said potential solutions to the problem of misinformation were “less creative than we need at this point”.
Gates has been an active campaigner during the coronavirus crisis, donating $250m to tackle the pandemic through the philanthropic foundation he runs with his wife Melinda.
Much of the funding has been directed towards developing and distributing a vaccine for Covid-19.
Gates today said the rich world could be nearly back to normal by late 2021 if a successful vaccine is found.
However, he said countries including the US were facing the problem of “vaccine hesitancy” and should think about which trusted figures or organisations could be used to promote the treatment.
In a further swipe at the US response to the pandemic, the business magnate said President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw his country’s support for the World Health Organization (WHO) had created a “vacuum of leadership”.
Gates urged the US to engage with other countries around the world to help prevent the further spread of infections.