Bill Gates' daughter Phoebe claims friends 'cut her off' over bizarre conspiracy theories about her dad
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Phoebe Gates recently opened up about losing some of her friends over conspiracy theories surrounding her father Bill Gates in a Netflix documentary series that premiered on Wednesday, September 18.
Phoebe, 22, is the youngest daughter of Bill and Melinda French Gates. According to Daily Mail, she is a reproductive rights activist who recently graduated with a degree in human biology from Stanford University.
Her appearance in the docuseries titled 'What's Next? The Future With Bill Gates' was filmed when she was finishing her senior year. At the time, she was concerned with online misinformation and the threat it bore to effective communication on health issues.
Phoebe Gates shares her experience with online misinformation
Bill Gates asked his daughter in the course of their conversation whether she had ever come across any of the numerous online rumors that were spread about him.
One in particular among them happened to be the suggestion that the COVID-19 pandemic was a ploy by the Microsoft founder to put tracking microchips inside people via the vaccines.
"All the time. I've even had friends cut me off because of these vaccine rumors," replied Phoebe.
The 68-year-old tech billionaire admitted to his daughter that he needed "to learn more because I naively still believe that digital communication can be a force to bring us together, to have a reasonable debate."
But Phoebe explained that for the people on social media, escapism was more important than a strong basis of facts and logic. She also shared her belief that conspiracy theories arise from fear and that during the pandemic, people did not know whom to trust or what to believe.
Bill Gates says daughter Phoebe was his favorite part of the series
Bill Gates wrote in his personal blog called Gates Notes that his conversation with his daughter Phoebe was the "series highlight" for him.
Phoebe "shared with me specific examples of how bad actors use misinformation and disinformation to disrupt progress," he stated.
In doing so, she "helped me better understand how women online - particularly women who stick up for other women - often face threats to their safety that are intended to make them think twice before they speak out."
"I'm not exactly a stranger to people being mean to you online, but I have the luxury of (mostly) ignoring what gets said about me," Gates confessed, before adding, "Phoebe explained how these threats can have a chilling effect on women's rights activism and shared some thoughtful ideas for how to make the Internet a safer place for everyone."
Internet continues to promote conspiracy theories about Bill Gates
The docuseries, however, was unable to convince netizens to disbelieve the conspiracy theories that circulate online about Bill Gates. Some social media users took to the comments section of the Daily Mail article and called him a "Bond villain".
"BG is an evil villain straight out of a Bond movie," wrote one social media user.
"The 'conspiracies' about Bill Gates are actually true! The friends are the smart ones here!" baselessly alleged another.
"Bill Gates obsessed with making sure we all got our jabs always seemed a little odd," shared one person.
"Those friends sound like free-thinking, objective individuals. Good on 'em," commented another.
"Conspiracies? He's literally a Bond villain," one individual wrote.
This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.
