by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
September 16, 2024
from
ChildrensHealthDefense Website
Michael Nevradakis,
Ph.D.,
based in Athens,
Greece, is a senior reporter for The Defender and part
of the rotation of hosts for CHD.TV's "Good Morning CHD." |
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HERE...
In interviews this month
with CNBC and CNET, Bill
Gates said we
"should have free speech" but
not
"if you're inciting violence,
if you're causing people not to
take vaccines."
Critics accused Gates of
protecting his investments in
pharma...
Bill Gates took a shot at free
speech, the First Amendment, and everyone who questions
vaccines and vaccine safety in a
CNBC interview earlier this month.
"We should have free speech, but if you're
inciting violence, if you're causing people not to take
vaccines, where are those boundaries that even the U.S. should
have rules?
And then if you have rules, what is it?"
Gates asked on CNBC's "Make It."
Gates made similar remarks this month in an
interview with CNET, during which he directly targeted the First
Amendment:
"The US is a tough one because we have the
notion of the First Amendment and what are the exceptions like
yelling 'fire' in a theater...
I do think over time, with things like deepfakes, most of the time you're online you're going to want
to be in an environment where the people are truly identified,
that is they're connected to a real-world identity that you
trust, instead of just people saying whatever they want."
Gates, described by CNBC as,
"the subject of numerous conspiracy
theories," said he does not have a solution for how to stop the
spread of "misinformation."
He lamented his,
"naïveté, that when we made information
available, that people would want correct information."
According to CNBC, Gates, who,
"spends a lot of his time and money trying to
help solve some of the world's biggest problems,"
...said that unlike tackling diseases or
promoting clean energy, there is no clear path forward for solving
what he views as the problem of "misinformation."
Gates told CNBC any "solution" would involve "rules" for online
speech, but he said he isn't sure what form those rules would take
or who would enforce them. Similarly, he told CNET "systems and
behaviors" should be in place to target "misinformation."
"Is there some AI [artificial intelligence]
that encodes those rules because you have billions of activity
[sic] and if you catch it a day later, the harm is done," Gates
told CNBC.
However, he acknowledged that he is sensitive to
the argument that restricting online information would be
detrimental to free speech.
Gates' remarks a 'Blatant Affront
to the First Amendment'
Experts who spoke with
The Defender
said Gates' remarks belie a disregard for the principles of free
speech and the
First Amendment.
Author
Naomi Wolf Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of
DailyClout, told The Defender, Gates "should re-read the
Constitution," adding:
"No individual, and certainly not the state,
has the authority in our system to be the arbiter of what can be
read or said.
Our First Amendment has very few and limited
exceptions, such as threats of violence. 'Misinformation' is not
one of them. History shows that
censorship never works ultimately to repress the truth."
Other experts cited Gates' questionable track
record on free speech and issues such as vaccines.
Epidemiologist
M. Nathaniel Mead told The Defender Gates',
"post-2020 track record on this issue is
well-documented."
Mead said:
"He tried to sell us on the 'vaccine-only'
solution to
COVID by falsely claiming that the modified mRNA injections
would avert infection and transmission, thereby ending the
pandemic.
He also openly urged media to disparage as
'conspiracy theorists' or anyone who questioned mandates for
masking, social distancing, lockdowns, PCR testing and, of
course, the so-called vaccines."
Mead called this "a rather blatant affront" to
the First Amendment.
"Given his track record with public health
communications, Gates is being grotesquely disingenuous when he
speaks about wanting to protect free speech."
Mead suggested Gates relies on control over
narratives in the media to further his promotion of - and
investments in - vaccines.
He said:
"Bill Gates has a vested interest in ensuring
that counternarrative information, or what he calls
'misinformation,' is eliminated.
That's because it interferes with his Bio-Pharma
agenda and what appear to be authoritarian aspirations as well,
given his efforts to
impose vaccine passport requirements internationally and to
restrict free speech through his control of many news media
channels, having given
over $300 million of his own funds in recent years to
support 'independent' media platforms such as
NPR, PBS
and The Guardian.
"Since the mass media relies heavily on
Big Pharma
advertising to maintain operations, it has largely abandoned the
traditional skepticism of government directives, instead aiding in
the suppression of dissenting viewpoints.
Anyone posing counter-establishment narratives is
a 'problem' from Gates' perspective."
'Afraid that
when their Plans are Exposed, People will Resist'
Others argued that Gates' reputation was hurt as
a result of his outspoken support for and investments in
COVID-19
vaccines and
mRNA technology - and can only be restored through censorship of
online speech.
"To restore his reputation from mad scientist
back to computer guy, Gates has one hope: censorship. Indeed,
the vast amount of censorship needed for that job is basically
to wipe the internet," attorney
Greg Glaser told The Defender.
Catherine Austin Fitts, founder and
publisher of the
Solari Report and former U.S. assistant secretary of Housing
and Urban Development, cited a recent survey showing that a
significant percentage of the population believes COVID-19
vaccines
are deadly.
"A recent
Rassmussen survey published in June 2024 reported that 33%
of American adults agree with the statement: 'The [COVID-19]
vaccine is killing people, and is killing large numbers of
people'," Fitts said.
"If Mr. Gates wants to stop misinformation,
his first step should be to stop financing, speaking or
republishing misinformation that results in the poisoning of our
children," Fitts added.
For
Seamus Bruner, author of "Controligarchs
-
Exposing the Billionaire Class, their Secret Deals, and the
Globalist Plot to Dominate Your Life," Gates' support for
stopping "misinformation" is tied to his support for vaccines and
digital ID.
Bruner, director of research at the
Government Accountability Institute, argued that the "systems
and behaviors" Gates advocated include,
"a de facto
digital ID system" that would "track and trace our precise
digital footprint - what we say and do online."
Bruner said:
"Gates and the other controligarchs are
pouring billions of dollars into
digital ID efforts, and they plan to use misinformation -
particularly
related to vaccines - to do it.
"He wants to control what we put in our
bodies. Now, he wants to control what we're allowed to put into
our minds - what we think - by controlling what we are allowed
to say.
The reason 'misinformation' is a 'problem'
for controligarchs like Gates is simple: They are afraid that
when their plans are exposed, people will resist."
Gates making an
'Emotional appeal to Manipulate Public Opinion'
CNBC's interview with Gates came just days before
the release of a five-part Netflix docuseries, "What's
Next? The Future With Bill Gates."
The series will premiere on Sept. 18 - the same
day as the
documentary "Vaxxed
3 - Authorized to Kill" will be released.
"Vaxxed 3" features
excerpts from thousands of interviews with people about vaccine
injuries and deaths people allege were caused by
hospital COVID-19 treatment protocols.
According to
CNBC, in one episode of "What's Next?" Gates tells his daughter
Phoebe he feels bad for failing to stem the spread of
"misinformation."
"Hearing my daughter talk about how she'd
been harassed online... brought that into focus in a way that I
hadn't thought about before," Gates told CNBC.
According to CNBC,
"Phoebe Gates spoke out about what she called
'the misconceptions and conspiracy theories'" - "including
racist online commentary about one of her ex-boyfriends, who is
Black" - and about her family in an interview with
The Information.
Gates told CNBC,
"We've handed this problem to the younger
generation," referring to "misinformation."
Mead accused Gates of trying to conceal his
support for censorship by eliciting an emotional response.
"Calling attention to the cyber harassment of
his daughter has less to do with misinformation than with
predatory and abusive online behaviors," Mead said.
"But Gates seems to be getting desperate, and
his attempt to make this kind of illogical linkage is an
emotional appeal to manipulate public opinion."
Mead said Gates used similar emotional tactics to
equate questioning vaccines with "inciting violence."
He said:
"In the video clip teaser, we hear Gates say
we should have free speech and then attempt to obliquely link
'inciting violence' with 'causing people not to take vaccines.'
"When he juxtaposes the incitement of
violence with causing people not to take vaccines, he's
resorting to the most basic propaganda tactic, that of emotional
manipulation."
Such plays on emotion also represent a concerted
effort to target young people in particular, according to Glaser:
"One of the most surprising things I've
learned from interviewing young people is they generally don't
like to fact check. Scrolling is way more fun.
They want verification processes done for
them, and they are content to rely on their peer group's
perception of the information.
That's the phenomenon that people like Gates
are trying to exploit."
Instead of
Censorship, a focus on allowing Free Speech to Thrive?
"Misinformation is
becoming more common," CNBC reported, citing developments
such as AI chatbots that "make it easier to generate and spread
falsehoods quickly," and a January
World Economic Forum report (WEF) that said "misinformation" is
the
top global risk for the next two years...
While citing AI as a prime driver of
"misinformation," CNBC cited a
2023 interview with
Beth Goldberg, head of research and development at Jigsaw, a
Google unit, who said researchers are attempting to develop AI tools
to identify what CNBC described as,
"misinformation and toxic speech online."
But in a blog post last year, Gates argued that
AI's ability to fight "misinformation" would be imperfect.
"Someone finds a way to detect fakery,
someone else figures out how to counter it, someone else
develops counter-countermeasures, and so on.
It won't be a perfect success, but we won't
be helpless either," Gates wrote.
But Glaser said society should focus on creating
the conditions for free speech to flourish.
"Free speech does not exist in a vacuum, but
rather its quality is a measure of the character of people
speaking and listening.
This is the root of the issue that censorship
cannot address. Only as we improve the character and morality of
our societies will free speech truly thrive," Glaser said.
"The largest danger to an organic human
system - like a free market - is inorganic authoritarianism,"
Glaser added.
"Bill
Gates teaming up with the United Nations to impose a
global order is the picture of inorganic authoritarianism."
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