Ridiculous hoax claims Microsoft will disable PCs of users sharing "non-mainstream content"

Most of us always had that “crazy uncle Bob” who believed in all kinds of ridiculous conspiracy theories. But the Internet Age, while providing easy access to a previously unimaginable amount of information, allowed these theories to spread much further, alongside misinformation and manipulation campaigns.

Unfortunately, Microsoft and its founder Bill Gates are often the targets of various hoaxes, and the latest one, debunked by Snopes.com, is truly silly.

A few days ago, a website called The People’s Voice published an article claiming that Microsoft will disable computers of users who share “non-mainstream content” online. The false claim is presented as a measure aimed to combat misinformation in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.

The article or screenshots of its title were shared thousands of times across various social media platforms. However, the claim is a complete fabrication.

The author of the article bases his wrong conclusion presented in the title on a recent interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for NBC’s Nightly News. The hoax article included an excerpt from the interview – a video from NBC’s official YouTube channel – discussing the risks of artificial intelligence when it comes to the political race. However, Nadella was at no point talking about specific measures which his company plans to implement – and he definitely didn’t mention anything remotely close to “turning off users’ computers”.

You can watch the short segment, that the hoax article refers to, in the video below:

In the interview, Satya Nadella was asked about the threats of AI as opposed to its benefits. CEO of Microsoft didn’t seem to be worried, though, as he dodged the question about AI and the presidential campaign by claiming it is not the first election where we have to deal with disinformation or propaganda:

“I think we are doing all of the work across the tech industry around watermarking and detecting deepfakes and content IDs. There’s going to be enough and more technology, quite frankly, in order to be able to identify the issues around disinformation and misinformation.”

It is no surprise that the false conclusion was fabricated by The People’s Voice. The website is a well-known source of fake news and the recent article about Nadella – which also featured a picture of Bill Gates, completely unrelated to this story – was just the latest of many other examples.

Anyway, if you are interested in the actual topic of NBC’s interview – the risks of artificial intelligence – you can read our recent editorial in which we essentially argue against Nadella’s opinion that the technology safeguards and government regulation will be enough to provide sufficient protection against the misuse of AI.

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