Published 13:11 IST, May 19th 2020

Fact Check: No, the Italian government did not seek Bill Gates' arrest; here's the truth

Fact check: News claims around social media and YouTube said that the Italian Government has called for the arrest of Bill Gates. Read to know the truth.

Reported by: Yashika Sharma
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While the coronavirus pandemic has been taking over the world, different countries are dealing with the problem with their own different ways. Recent news was shared on Twitter, Facebook and other social media portals that claim that the Italian Government has called for the arrest of Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Corporation. Multiple egregious allegations were placed on Gates, ranging for purposefully spreading diseases for personal means to also trying to reduce the population with harmful means.

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Origin:

The video of the Italian Government calling for Bill Gates’ arrest started being shared on YouTube, and it then was slowly shared on Twitter and Facebook. It also slowly took over other social media portals. The video was uploaded on YouTube and the link of the same was shared by people on their respective social media profiles.

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It is not the entire government but ONE Italian lawmaker who has called for Bill Gates’ arrest

Bill Gates has found himself in the centre of many conspiracy theories after he stepped forward to work towards developing a vaccine for COVID-19 through his foundation. Since a long time, there has been a theory bubbling that the vaccinations made by billionaire companies and other authoritative figures only help them financially and can prove to be harmful to humanity. Thus, Bill Gates has found himself as one of the targets as well.

The video is from the Italian Parliament. The speaker in the video is Italian Parliament member Sara Cunial. The views shown in the video are just of Sara and has no reflection of the entire government’s action that is taken or not taken towards Bill Gates.

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Who is Sara Cunial?

Sara Cunial is a part of Italy’s ‘5 Star Movement’, a political party that has brought forward the anti-vaccination agenda in the country. Cunial was suspended from the party for some time in 2018 after she had made a Facebook post that the vaccines are a way for free genocide, as per a news source. She is also an Italian Parliament Member. 

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Sara went through a number of points in order to justify her claim that Bill Gates indeed is working against the good of humanity. She linked the spread of coronavirus to the rise of 5G technology, which has already been questioned as many believe that Gates is working towards ‘de-populating the world’. This, she claims, is done by implementing digital microchips via mandatory vaccines. 

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Did the Italian government call for Bill Gates' arrest?

Sara later also blamed the Italian Government for creating the ‘true cultural epidemic’ as it allowed dogmatic scientism to run prevalent. One can hear protests from the other members present when she said that. While it is true that this Italian politician delivered a speech in the Italian parliament and asking the President to arrest Bill Gates, this was not endorsed or taken forward by the Italian government. The Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies also came forward and took to Twitter to express her opinions about Cunial's speech:

(Support of absurd and unfounded theories is serious, especially in a health emergency. Connecting phantom plots to the Head of State is unworthy of an institutional representative. President Mattarella is a solid garrison of freedom and democracy.)

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13:10 IST, May 19th 2020