YouTube comments on Bill Gates videos dominated by Covid-19 CONSPIRACIES as misinformation spread

Conspiracy theories about Covid-19 thrived in the comments on YouTube videos featuring Bill Gates despite the Google-owned platform's policies against misinformation. The new study examined a dataset of 38,564 YouTube comments that were drawn from three videos - all of which featured Gates and related to Covid-19 - that were posted by Fox News, Vox and China Global Television Network. Comments on the videos covered a range of topics, including the philanthropist's role in vaccine development and distribution, his connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, 5G networks and concepts around Gates being able to control people through human microchipping. The researchers used topic modelling and qualitative content analysis to determine that comments for each video were'heavily' dominated by conspiratorial statements. Conspiracy theories thrived in the comments on YouTube videos featuring Bill Gates (above) despite the Google-owned platform's policies against misinformation Gates, who co-founded Microsoft and remains a controversial figure, predicted a killer virus would originate in China and spread globally.