A video of Bill Gates predicting ‘water lockdowns’ is fake – Full Fact

A video being shared thousands of times on Facebook has been altered to make it look as though Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said “water lockdowns” will cause widespread suffering that can be solved by something called “the United States Water Reserve”.

The video actually uses genuine footage of Mr Gates speaking to the media earlier this year about giving testimony to the US House Oversight Committee about Jeffrey Epstein. (Mr Gates’s appearance at the committee was voluntary and he told it he had never witnessed Epstein engaged in ongoing criminal conduct, or seen any indication of it.)

But an entirely different audio track and screen caption seem to have been added to the CBS News clip. The footage of Mr Gates’s lips may also have been manipulated to make it match the new audio track.

While Mr Gates has previously spoken about the scarcity of water being a possible effect of climate change, and invested in water projects, we can’t find evidence that he has ever predicted “water lockdowns”, or recommended “the United States Water Reserve”. This seems to be a type of crypto asset rather than a water infrastructure project.

We’ve fact checked a number of other false claims about Mr Gates over the years. Before sharing posts like this it’s important to check whether they are reliable. Our Misinformation Toolkit can help you do this.