The People’s Voice website has made up another lie, that Microsoft plans to shut down computers used to post disinformation – the site’s speciality.
MARY ALEXANDER • 21 FEBRUARY 2024
“Microsoft to disable computers of users who share ‘non-mainstream content’ online,” reads the headline of an article circulating on social media in Nigeria, South Africa, Somalia and elsewhere since early February 2024.*
The article was published on 3 February by The People’s Voice. The website, previously known as News Punch, is widely known to spread false information. The piece was then republished on Planet Today, another disinformation site.
It includes a photo of Bill Gates, a co-founder of the tech company Microsoft. Gates, a frequent target of conspiracy theories, stepped down from the Microsoft board in 2020.
Satya Nadella has been Microsoft’s chief executive since 2014.
The People’s Voice bases its entire claim – also seen here, here and here – on a four-minute interview with Nadella by Lester Holt, a journalist for US broadcaster NBC News.
The interview was uploaded on YouTube on 31 January with the title “Exclusive: Microsoft CEO Nadella on the promise and problems of A.I.”
Does Nadella reveal in the interview that Microsoft plans to disable computers used to post “non-mainstream content” online? And what exactly is “non-mainstream content”?
No mention of disabling computers
At no point in the interview does Nadella say his company would disable computers.
Instead, he discusses artificial intelligence and the challenge of disinformation in the run-up to the 2024 US elections, set for November.
The claim is simply false.
The People’s Voice article doesn’t say what it means by “non-mainstream content”. But it dismisses the idea of false information with phrases like “so-called ‘misinformation’” and “what [Nadella] identified as disinformation”.
It’s clear that “non-mainstream content” is just a clunky euphemism for what’s more widely known as fake news.
* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.
Published by Africa Check on 27 February 2024