The Microsoft billionaire is a consistent target of outlandish conspiracy theories—and last week was no exception

7 May 2021 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
Bill Gates has not bought Telegram “to control what people think”

Bill Gates has been in the news this week, after it was announced he and Melinda Gates will divorce after 27 years of marriage.

But, as regular readers will be aware, the billionaire Microsoft founder is also a consistent target of outlandish conspiracy theories—and last week was no exception.

We spotted a viral Instagram post—featuring a screengrab of what appeared to be a report from US TV network Fox News—which claimed that Mr Gates had bought the messaging app Telegram.

The author of the post added this was to “retain control of what information people can share, think and research."

But this is false.

The Gates family has no commercial interest or ownership of Telegram. Fox News has never reported such a story, and the screenshot accompanying the Instagram post appears to have been digitally manipulated.
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FACT CHECK
Lorraine Kelly’s Himalayas photo gaffe ([link removed])

The Lorraine programme on ITV did a recent segment on “before and after” photos of the Himalayas, as seen from Jalandhar in northern India.

The idea was to demonstrate how lockdown in India had diminished pollution to such an extent that you can now see the mountains clearly from a distance—whereas they had previously been shrouded in thick pre-Covid smog.

Except both images appear to have been taken at the same time.

As one eagle-eyed ITV viewer pointed out, in both photos you can see the same two men, who are wearing the exact same clothes and standing in the exact same positions.

The “after” picture is genuine; it was taken by a photographer named Anshul Chopra in India, who claimed ownership of it on Twitter.

That means the “before” picture has been edited to make the sky and mountains appear much fainter.

Despite this, there is some anecdotal and statistical evidence that lockdowns in India have led to significant improvements in air quality and visibility.
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FACT CHECK
Daily Express Covid map uses all the wrong numbers ([link removed])

A map in the print version of the Daily Express last Friday gave a very misleading impression of the current state of the pandemic in the UK.

It claimed to show the number of new Covid cases in each nation and region of the UK, with several apparently showing zero cases.

In fact, all these numbers were wrong.

None of these nations or regions actually reported zero cases of Covid on 29 April, or on any other recent day. Nor were any of the other case totals accurate.

It’s possible that the numbers were meant to refer to something else, but we’ve not been able to work out what.

We’ve asked the Daily Express what the map was meant to show, but we had not received an answer at the time of publication.
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FACT CHECK
Alleged link between teenage depression and social media use not backed up with evidence ([link removed])

A headline in the Daily Telegraph last week claimed that the “doubling of teenage depression rates” is linked to social media use.

But this is a misleading representation of the story.

The main study cited in the article does not discuss any link between depression and social media, and social media usage was not investigated in the study.

An academic quoted in the Telegraph article said that, while social media may be related more generally to changes in mental health, a causal link hasn’t been established, and other factors would need to be considered.

We asked the journalist who wrote the article for evidence for the alleged link between teenage depression and social media use.

In reply, we were sent a blog post from a marketing agency which looked at Gen Z and Millennial social media use. But the blog didn’t actually mention depression.
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MORE FACT CHECKS
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* Influencer video full of untrue vaccine claims ([link removed])
* ‘Fake' WW1 photo contains kernel of truth ([link removed])
* Donkey being carried out of compassion, not self-preservation ([link removed])
* Photo of Mike Tyson in ‘Plan-Demic’ t-shirt has been edited ([link removed])
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* Images of decorated room are not the Downing Street refurbishment ([link removed])

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