FALSE CLAIMS THAT Bill Gates had written an article titled “Depopulation Through Forced Vaccination: The Zero Carbon Solution” continue to spread online despite being long-debunked.

The claim is based on a photo of what appears to be a newspaper with that headline on its front page, next to a photo of Gates.

“The article contains an article by Bill Gates”, a caption superimposed on the image reads. “Gates thinks it would be the ‘most environmentally friendly solution’. No one gave it much thought at the time.”

However, the “newspaper” in the photo is a 2011 copy of The Sovereign Independent, a now-defunct Irish conspiracy theory publication (a British version with the same name has also been in print). The article was not written by Bill Gates, who was then the world’s second-richest person, and who has long been a favourite target of similar conspiracy theories.

Despite this claim being debunked many times over (the claim appears to have had a revival during the Covid-19 pandemic), it continues to spread.

A recent post on Instagram included the claim alongside a long post decrying modern medicine, in which the poster also shilled their own $37 book of “natural” remedies.

The post garnered more than 6,200 likes since it was shared on 1 January, and has been posted across social media platforms, including by an Irish user who posted it to Facebook on 4 January.

However, rather than being proof that Gates is part of a conspiracy, the article is simply evidence that Gates has long been the target of conspiracy theorists.

A higher-resolution image of the front page, featured on Snopes, shows that it is from the fourth edition of the paper, released in 2011. The front page advertises a “4-Page Special” on the September 11 attacks, as well as a digitally generated image incorrectly suggesting vaccines were responsible for steep rises in deaths and autism.

In any case, it is not a legitimate newspaper, and Bill Gates certainly did not write for it by revealing nefarious plans to kill people with vaccines.

Rather, the paper seems to be making accusations against Gates, who is a common target of conspiracy theories.

Often, spurious claims about Gates are made in relation to his suggestions that global overpopulation could be prevented by improving public health, an idea that has been warped by some to imply that public health measures will kill people.

The Journal has previously debunked other false claims about Gates, including that he was planning to trick parents into microchipping babies in the womb with digital IDs, and that he had called on the army to arrest and forcibly vaccinate people, among many other falsehoods.

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