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Bill Gates speaks during the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, in New York. (AP)
No, Bill Gates didn’t cause July 19 worldwide IT outage
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CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company, said its faulty software update was responsible for a July 19 global technology outage affecting devices using Microsoft software.
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Bill Gates does not own CrowdStrike and he stepped down as Microsoft chief executive officer 24 years ago.
Is Bill Gates to blame for the July 19 faulty software update that led to worldwide disruption of services? Viral social media posts claim so.
"Bill Gates woke up & thought to himself: ‘How can I screw the entire World over today’
And he did," a July 19 X post said.
Another X post sought to link the outage to both Gates and the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump: "Was the Bill Gates sponsored IT outage supposed to coincide with their attempt to force the opposition into a civil war, or was it because it didn't succeed."
Airports, hospitals and news outlets were among those affected by the global outage.
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But just like the software update, these claims linking Gates to the information technology outage are faulty.
CrowdStrike, a Texas-based cybersecurity company, claimed responsibility for the outage.
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"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," the company said in a July 19 statement. "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed."
We found no evidence of a relationship between Gates and CrowdStrike. He is not listed among the company’s board of directors or executive leadership team. Although Gates co-founded Microsoft Corp. in 1975, he relinquished operational control of the company, stepping down as CEO in January 2000 and resigning from Microsoft’s board of directors in March 2020.
We rate the claim Bill Gates is responsible for the July 19 global tech outage False.
Our Sources
X post (archived link), July 19, 2024
X post (archived link), July 19, 2024
BBC News, Massive worldwide IT outage could take some time to fix, cybersecurity boss says, July 19, 2024
CrowdStrike, Statement on Falcon Content Update for Windows Hosts, accessed July 19, 2024
CrowdStrike, Board of Directors, accessed July 19, 2024
CrowdStrike, Executive Leadership, accessed July 19, 2024
Microsoft, Facts About Microsoft, accessed July 19, 2024
Microsoft, Microsoft announces change to its board of directors, accessed July 19, 2024
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No, Bill Gates didn’t cause July 19 worldwide IT outage
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