Money Fight!
Bill Gates has had enough of fellow tech billionaire Elon Musk’s habit of spreading coronavirus misinformation.
On Tuesday, Gates spoke at length about online misinformation with CNBC. And when the conversation pivoted to Musk’s online comments, Bill Gates said that the SpaceX and Tesla CEO seemed way out of his element.
“Elon’s positioning is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments,” Gates told CNBC.
Off-Base
Since the pandemic began, Musk has spread disinformation about the COVID-19 death toll, he repeatedly downplayed the danger of the coronavirus, and wrongfully implied that children are “essentially immune” to the disease.
“He’s not much involved in vaccines,” Gates said of Musk. “He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So he’s allowed to say these things. I hope that he doesn’t confuse areas he’s not involved in too much.”
Basically: Stay in your lane, Elon.
Broader Problem
But the problems certainly don’t begin and end with Musk. Gates acknowledged that the very nature of the internet and social media makes it easy to propagate disinformation.
“When you let people communicate, you have to deal with the fact that certain incorrect things that are very titillating can spread very rapidly compared to the truth,” Gates told CNBC. “And we’ve always seen that with vaccines.”
READ MORE: Bill Gates: Lies spread faster than facts on social media, which is hard to police [CNBC]
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