Stand up for the facts!
Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.
I would like to contribute
No, Bill Gates did not outline 2018 plan to depopulate the planet
Bill Gates is not attempting to depopulate the planet, contrary to a false claim on a website called Mysterious Times.
"Bill Gates Outlines 2018 Plan To Depopulate The Planet," said an April 30 post on mysterious-times.com, filed under its "Conspiracy" category.
The post’s supposed evidence includes efforts by Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to research, develop and deliver vaccines to help reduce child mortality.
It claimed Gates "has doubled down on his goal to depopulate the planet, using deceitful Orwellian doublespeak in a new video to bamboozle his naive followers into believing that ‘by making people healthier, we can reduce the world’s population.’"
Facebook users flagged the post as being potentially fabricated, as part of the social media network’s efforts to combat online hoaxes.
Sign up for PolitiFact texts
"Make no mistake, when Gates talks about ‘making people healthier,’ what he is really talking about is enforcing the mandatory rollout of his range of experimental vaccinations. The same vaccines that have already caused mass sterilization and death on multiple continents," the post said.
It also claimed that vaccinations promoted in India by the Gates Foundation "were actually doing irreparable harm to young girls" and that it conducted experimental vaccine trials. But PunditFact in December 2016 debunked a post on an anti-vaccine blog claiming Gates used "30,000 Indian girls as guinea pigs to test cancer" and that vaccination efforts led to deaths. That Pants on Fire post was a mash-up of outdated, disproven rumors.
Mysterious Times doesn’t offer many details about its website, but the About section of its Facebook page says: "Aliens UFOs, Conspiracy and Weird Stuff."
Featured Fact-check
Gates does not seek to "depopulate" the planet, but believes saving children’s lives can help reduce population growth.
When children survive, families decide to have fewer children and that "can lead to a burst of economic growth that economists call ‘the demographic dividend,’ " Gates said in the 2018 edition of the annual letter he co-writes with his wife, Melinda.
"When more children live, you get one generation that’s relatively big. Then, when families decide to have fewer children, the next generation is much smaller. Eventually, a country ends up with relatively more people in the labor force producing economically—and relatively fewer dependents (very old or very young people)," Bill Gates said in the 2018 letter. "That’s a recipe for rapid economic development, especially if countries take advantage of it by investing in health and education."
We rate Mysterious Times’ post Pants on Fire!
PolitiFact Rating: 
Our Sources
Mysterious-times.com, Bill Gates Outlines 2018 Plan To Depopulate The Plane, April 30, 2018
Mysterious-times.com, Conspiracy page
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Pledge $10 Billion in Call for Decade of Vaccines | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
PunditFact, Anti-vaccination blog revives debunked HPV story, Dec. 20, 2016
Facebook, Mysterious Times page
Twitter, @BillGates tweet, Feb. 9, 2012
NPR, Bill Gates Sets Out His Global Charitable Goals, Jan. 25, 2010
Bill and Melinda Gates 2018 Annual Letter, Feb. 13, 2018
Browse the Truth-O-Meter
More by Miriam Valverde
No, Bill Gates did not outline 2018 plan to depopulate the planet
Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!
In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.