Bill Gatess daughter has revealed she lost friends over conspiracy theories about her father.
Phoebe Gates, 22, the youngest daughter of Bill and Melinda French Gates, made the shocking claim while discussing the spread of misinformation on Netflixs new docuseries Whats Next? The Future With Bill Gates, which premiered Wednesday.
As the conversation continued between her and her father, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder asked his daughter if she had ever come across conspiracy theories about him - including that the COVID pandemic was a ploy to allow Bill Gates to put microchips in vaccines that would allow him to track people.
All the time, Phoebe responded.
Ive even had friends cut me off because of these vaccine rumors, she said.
Phoebe Gates, 22, admitted that she has lost friends over conspiracy theories about her father
The 22 year old reproductive rights activist recently graduated from Stanford University with a degree in human biology, and was invited onto her fathers show as she was finishing up her senior year.
She said at the time she was concerned about the ability to effectively communicate accurate health information as misinformation spreads online.
I need to learn more, her 68 year old father admitted, because I naively still believe that digital communication can e a force to bring us together, to have a reasonable debate.
But Phoebe said her father does not realize that facts and logic are not as important to people on social media as is finding an escape from everyday life.
A popular conspiracy theory is that the COVID pandemic was a ploy to allow Bill Gates to put microchips in vaccines that would allow him to track people
At that point, Gates asked his daughter where she believes conspiracy theories come from - to which she replied they arise from a place of fear.
During the COVID lockdowns, she explained, no one knew who to trust or what to believe.
The pandemic was definitely social media at its worst, oversimplifying things, Gates agreed.
The two also discussed womens reproductive rights and gender equality - two topics Phoebe is passionate about.
Gates later admitted that the conversation with his daughter was his favorite of the show
Gates later wrote that the conversation with his daughter was his favorite of the show, calling it a series highlight.
He wrote on his Gates Notes blog that Phoebe shared with me specific examples of how bad actors use misinformation and disinformation to disrupt progress.
In doing so, he said, Phoebe 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.
Im not exactly a stranger to people being mean to you nline, but I have the luxury of (mostly) ignoring what gets said about me, the billionaire admitted.
Phoebe explained how these threats can have a chilling effect on womens rights activism and shared some thoughtful ideas for how to make the Internet a safer place for everyone.