After months of conspiracy-mongering, people around the world are demanding Gates be arrested for crimes against humanity. Here’s how things got so bad.Editors' note: This story has been updated to more clearly attribute phrasing from work previously published in Type Investigations, HuffPost, Pacific Standard, and BuzzFeed News.On May 14, Italian politician Sara Cunial a video to her Facebook profile calling former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates a criminal and demanding he be tried for crimes against humanity.It was a speech she made in the Italian Parliament in early May, in which Cunial, who...…After months of conspiracy-mongering, people around the world are demanding Gates be arrested for crimes against humanity. Here’s how things got so bad.Editors' note: This story has been updated to more clearly attribute phrasing from work previously published in Type Investigations, HuffPost, Pacific Standard, and BuzzFeed News.On May 14, Italian politician Sara Cunial a video to her Facebook profile calling former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates a criminal and demanding he be tried for crimes against humanity.It was a speech she made in the Italian Parliament in early May, in which Cunial, who...WW…

Right-wing media and Trump supporters are targeting a Twitter employee after the platform fact-checked President Donald Trump for the first time on Tuesday, applying its label for misleading tweets from world leaders to two tweets he sent about mail-in ballots in California. Yet according to the company, it was not that employee's responsibility to fact-check the tweet.Trump’s tweets claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to increased voter fraud — which Myrna Pérez, director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program, told BuzzFeed News there was no evidence for. Twitter...…Right-wing media and Trump supporters are targeting a Twitter employee after the platform fact-checked President Donald Trump for the first time on Tuesday, applying its label for misleading tweets from world leaders to two tweets he sent about mail-in ballots in California. Yet according to the company, it was not that employee's responsibility to fact-check the tweet.Trump’s tweets claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to increased voter fraud — which Myrna Pérez, director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program, told BuzzFeed News there was no evidence for. Twitter...WW…

A guide to the spin doctors and conspiracy theorists clogging up your social media feed.BuzzFeed News has reporters across five continents bringing you trustworthy stories about the impact of the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, and sign up for our newsletter, .Many of those who spread hoaxes and pseudoscience about the pandemic can be hard to distinguish from medical authorities recognized by their peers as legitimate.To help you cut through the misinformation, we're keeping a running list of the most prominent people who have pushed what scientists and professional fact-checkers...…A guide to the spin doctors and conspiracy theorists clogging up your social media feed.BuzzFeed News has reporters across five continents bringing you trustworthy stories about the impact of the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, and sign up for our newsletter, .Many of those who spread hoaxes and pseudoscience about the pandemic can be hard to distinguish from medical authorities recognized by their peers as legitimate.To help you cut through the misinformation, we're keeping a running list of the most prominent people who have pushed what scientists and professional fact-checkers...WW…

In the face of a coronavirus outbreak that has now reached the White House, the president, his supporters, and Fox News are blustering about Barack Obama.On the night of Saturday, May 9, President Donald Trump tweeted five Fox News clips: One Sean Hannity’s Hannity, Jeanine Pirro’s Justice With Judge Jeanine, and Jesse Watters’ Watters’ World.All of the clips were about a supposed “coup d’état,” as the Fox anchors called it, committed by the Obama administration during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. "Obamagate, that's the subject of tonight's 'Watters Words'" segment,...…In the face of a coronavirus outbreak that has now reached the White House, the president, his supporters, and Fox News are blustering about Barack Obama.On the night of Saturday, May 9, President Donald Trump tweeted five Fox News clips: One Sean Hannity’s Hannity, Jeanine Pirro’s Justice With Judge Jeanine, and Jesse Watters’ Watters’ World.All of the clips were about a supposed “coup d’état,” as the Fox anchors called it, committed by the Obama administration during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. "Obamagate, that's the subject of tonight's 'Watters Words'" segment,...WW…

The video also advises people to treat COVID-19 with vitamin C.The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, and sign up for our newsletter, .A YouTube video full of what experts have called misinformation about the went viral this week, accumulating over 6 million views and close to half a million Facebook shares since it was published last Saturday.The video features an interview with Shiva Ayyadurai, a candidate for the GOP nomination for Senate in Massachusetts, who questionably to have...…The video also advises people to treat COVID-19 with vitamin C.The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, and sign up for our newsletter, .A YouTube video full of what experts have called misinformation about the went viral this week, accumulating over 6 million views and close to half a million Facebook shares since it was published last Saturday.The video features an interview with Shiva Ayyadurai, a candidate for the GOP nomination for Senate in Massachusetts, who questionably to have...WW…

For $350, they’ll sell you a USB stick they claim protects you from harmful 5G radiation and prevents infection from the coronavirus. (It doesn't.)Editors' note: This story has been updated to more clearly attribute phrasing from work previously published in The Guardian.A network of British conspiracy theorists are promoting — and profiting from — a that 5G cellular technology is spreading COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel .As 5G, the industry term for the fifth generation of wireless communications infrastructure, has spread across 40 countries worldwide — most notably South Korea...…For $350, they’ll sell you a USB stick they claim protects you from harmful 5G radiation and prevents infection from the coronavirus. (It doesn't.)Editors' note: This story has been updated to more clearly attribute phrasing from work previously published in The Guardian.A network of British conspiracy theorists are promoting — and profiting from — a that 5G cellular technology is spreading COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel .As 5G, the industry term for the fifth generation of wireless communications infrastructure, has spread across 40 countries worldwide — most notably South Korea...WW…

China’s censors are going to have to learn to read Klingon and Elvish.People on WeChat, the Chinese messaging app, are evading censors by translating a from a Wuhan, China, coronavirus whistleblower by rewriting it backward, filling it with typos and emojis, sharing it as a PDF, and even translating it into fictional languages like Klingon.The heavily shared interview from the March edition of the local state-run magazine, People, was with Ai Fen, the director of the emergency department of Wuhan Central Hospital. Ai was the first doctor to pass along information about the then–mystery...…China’s censors are going to have to learn to read Klingon and Elvish.People on WeChat, the Chinese messaging app, are evading censors by translating a from a Wuhan, China, coronavirus whistleblower by rewriting it backward, filling it with typos and emojis, sharing it as a PDF, and even translating it into fictional languages like Klingon.The heavily shared interview from the March edition of the local state-run magazine, People, was with Ai Fen, the director of the emergency department of Wuhan Central Hospital. Ai was the first doctor to pass along information about the then–mystery...WW…

The video also advises people to treat COVID-19 with vitamin C.The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, and sign up for our newsletter, .A YouTube video full of what experts have called misinformation about the went viral this week, accumulating over 6 million views and close to half a million Facebook shares since it was published last Saturday.The video features an interview with Shiva Ayyadurai, a candidate for the GOP nomination for Senate in Massachusetts, who questionably to have...…The video also advises people to treat COVID-19 with vitamin C.The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, and sign up for our newsletter, .A YouTube video full of what experts have called misinformation about the went viral this week, accumulating over 6 million views and close to half a million Facebook shares since it was published last Saturday.The video features an interview with Shiva Ayyadurai, a candidate for the GOP nomination for Senate in Massachusetts, who questionably to have...WW…

On Sunday, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk Fox News and offered an idea to the channel’s 3.5 million-member audience: Reopen states with lower infection rates while leaving more heavily infected areas in quarantine.“So what I’d like to see is an even heavier focus and more national unity about assisting those areas, and also relieving some of the quarantine and allowing the American entrepreneur to be liberated,” Kirk said.There’s clearly an appetite for this kind of thinking, some Americans social distancing warnings. A Staten Island couple on Sunday, shrugging off a New York state ban on...…On Sunday, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk Fox News and offered an idea to the channel’s 3.5 million-member audience: Reopen states with lower infection rates while leaving more heavily infected areas in quarantine.“So what I’d like to see is an even heavier focus and more national unity about assisting those areas, and also relieving some of the quarantine and allowing the American entrepreneur to be liberated,” Kirk said.There’s clearly an appetite for this kind of thinking, some Americans social distancing warnings. A Staten Island couple on Sunday, shrugging off a New York state ban on...WW…

City officials said Friday that South by Southwest won't be happening this year.The 2020 South by Southwest conference and festivals have been canceled amid fears of the growing American outbreak of the coronavirus. Many large companies of the conference, including Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter.Austin city officials said in a press conference, "this is a medical and data-driven decision."SXSW organizers said in a tweet they were "devastated."As of Friday, there were 260 reported , with 14 deaths, the majority of which were in Washington state.SXSW, which was scheduled to...…City officials said Friday that South by Southwest won't be happening this year.The 2020 South by Southwest conference and festivals have been canceled amid fears of the growing American outbreak of the coronavirus. Many large companies of the conference, including Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter.Austin city officials said in a press conference, "this is a medical and data-driven decision."SXSW organizers said in a tweet they were "devastated."As of Friday, there were 260 reported , with 14 deaths, the majority of which were in Washington state.SXSW, which was scheduled to...WW…