Claim: US Marshals have arrested Bill Gates and charged him with “war crimes against humanity”; he is now being held under armed watch at Guantanamo Bay. The text is attributed to the Washington Post. An accompanying photo shows Gates strapped to a gurney.
Fact: Gates has not been arrested and the accompanying photo has been altered to his likeness.
On 16 July 2023, Facebook user ‘Marianne Braagaard’ posted (archive) a picture of a man, who appears to resemble Microsoft co-founder and American business magnate Bill Gates, strapped to a gurney, with the following accompanying caption:
“Bill Gates Arrested by US Federal Marshals; Being Held Under Armed Watch at Guantanamo Bay; Charged With War Crimes Against Humanity. Washington Post.”
Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp is a notorious prison in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba — also known as Gitmo — “that critics say allows detainees to be held indefinitely outside of normal laws or judicial oversight”, as per a report (archive).
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched the image using TinEye and found that it appears to be a screenshot from a video uploaded to YouTube in 2016.
The video, which is age-restricted, is titled “Death Penalty: The Real Deal” and is available on the YouTube channel Abdulmajid Kamil Badawi. It was uploaded on 30 November 2016. We also found a similar clip — titled “#DeathPenaltyFail: A Lethal Injection” — uploaded by the YouTube channel Death Penalty Fail on 25 August 2016.
The image in question appears to be a screenshot taken at the 3:53 and 8:13 marks from the videos uploaded by Abdulmajid Kamil Badawi and Death Penalty Fail, respectively.
To compare the viral image with the screenshot taken from Abdulmajid Kamil Badawi’s video, move the slider across the interactive visual below:
The screenshot and the viral image share similarities in terms of how the gown and straps are positioned, the legs, as well as the gurney.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook.
Moreover, according to these Facebook posts, it appears that the claim also made its way to Telegram and former US President Donald Trump’s social media application, Truth Social.
It appeared here, here, here, here, and here on Twitter. This tweet, on the other hand, has been significantly viral and viewed more than 3.4 million times.
The claim was also posted here in 2022.
Conclusion: Gates has not been arrested and the accompanying photo has been altered to his likeness.
Background image in cover photo: Tadas Sar
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