Claim: Bill Gates’ Twitter account has been suspended following billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media platform.
Fact: Gates’ account has not been suspended as confirmed by a Twitter spokesperson and a spokesperson for the philanthropist.
Fact or Fiction?
On 26 April 2022, Facebook page Jacksonville Florida “The 904” shared a screenshot claiming that billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates has been suspended from Twitter following American entrepreneur Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media company.
The upper half of the screenshot shows Bill Gates’ Twitter profile, including his Twitter handle (@BillGates). The lower half of the image shows an “Account Suspended” notice.
Another screenshot carrying the same claim also shows Gates’ follower count, bio, location and website, above a notice saying, “Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.”
The claim was picked up by multiple pages including, here, here, here, here and here, among others.
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be false as the image doing the rounds on social media is fake. Unlike what is shown in the fake screenshot, Twitter profiles that are suspended appear to other users without profile pictures, bios, and other details such as followers, locations or website links.
Archives of Gates’ Twitter account also suggest it was not suspended on April 25, 2022. Gates’ Twitter profile remains active as of 27 April 2022.
A Google search revealed that there were no reports of Gates’ Twitter account being suspended.
A spokesperson for Bill Gates confirmed to Soch Fact Check that the viral claim is false.
Moreover, IFCN-certified fact-checking websites Reuters and AP also debunked the claim that Gates’ Twitter account was suspended. According to Reuters Fact Check, a Twitter spokesperson said Gates has not been suspended from the platform.
Virality
According to a CrowdTangle analysis conducted by Soch Fact Check, the search term “Bill Gates Twitter account suspended” turned up 23 posts on Facebook which received 18,530 interactions over the last three days leading up to 27 April 2022.
FX-ARABIA.com’s post is performing 3.96x better than other similar posts with 80 likes and 5 shares. Jacksonville Florida’s post received 376 likes and 64 shares while Steve the Maori’s post received 1,600 likes and 131 shares.
On Twitter, the claim was shared here, here , here and here.
Conclusion: Bill Gates has not been suspended from Twitter following billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform. The viral image suggesting otherwise is fake.