Bill Gates Questions Elon Musk’s Goals for Twitter, Approach to Misinformation

“How does he feel about something that says vaccines kill people or that Bill Gates is tracking people?” Mr. Gates said, adding, “It’s not totally clear what he is going to do.”

In a recent tweet, Mr. Musk confirmed that he confronted Mr. Gates about shorting

Tesla Inc.

In the tweets, Mr. Gates had contacted his fellow billionaire to discuss philanthropy in climate change, but Mr. Musk asked if Mr. Gates still had a $500 million short position in Tesla. Mr. Gates responded that he hadn’t closed it out, to which Mr. Musk said he couldn’t take Mr. Gates’s philanthropy seriously if he was shorting the electric-car maker.

Mr. Gates didn’t directly answer a question about whether he had personally shorted Tesla, saying that climate change was a focus of the Gates Foundation.

“I don’t think whether one’s short or long Tesla is a statement about your seriousness about climate change,” Mr. Gates said. “I applaud Tesla’s role in helping with climate change.”

He added, “I have nothing but positive things to say about Elon. If he makes Twitter worse, fine, I’ll speak out about that, but I wouldn’t assume that’s what’s going to happen.”

Mr. Musk, who has supplanted Mr. Gates as the world’s richest person, has agreed to pay $44 billion to buy Twitter, saying he wants to ensure it protects free speech.

Mr. Gates said he was often the subject of misinformation during the pandemic and that not all misinformation stems from social media, such as the popularity of taking hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19. “The fact that people latched on politically to particular drugs that truly did not work. Who would have expected that?” he said. “It is pretty hard to explain.”

The

Microsoft Corp.

co-founder and global philanthropist said political leaders had a role to play in combating misinformation. “When you do not have the trusted leaders speaking out about vaccines, it’s pretty hard for the platform to work against that,” he said. “We have a leadership problem, and we have a platform problem.”

“The way that you make those platforms spread truth and not crazy stuff, there’s some real invention required there, and it’s partly in the political realm,” Mr. Gates said. “I don’t have the solution to that. I hope lots of brilliant people are thinking about it, but it is a huge problem in terms of legitimacy of the elections or medical innovations.”

In a recent Journal essay, Mr. Gates argued that the world needs a full-time, paid team whose job it is to prevent pandemics, dubbing the proposed effort “GERM.” The Gates Foundation has committed more than $2 billion to pandemic relief.

On Wednesday, Mr. Gates said the effort would include a social-media team that puts out messages with information about issues such as vaccines. But he said that trusted leaders in communities need to be engaged to stop the spread of misinformation. “We went to the religious leaders. They vaccinated their children,” he said, speaking of the foundation’s efforts to eradicate polio in Africa. “We eradicated wild polio from Nigeria, but it took us three years.”

He said that a lack of cooperation among countries during the pandemic hurt global efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus cases and that geopolitical tensions with Russia and China could hurt future efforts. “The United States during a global pandemic literally withdrew from the World Health Organization,” he said. “That left everyone going, ‘What are we supposed to do?’”

Last year, Mr. Gates and

Melinda French Gates

said they were ending their marriage after 27 years. Ms. French Gates was concerned by her then-husband’s meetings with disgraced financier

Jeffrey Epstein,

the Journal previously reported. She and her divorce lawyers held a number of calls in October 2019, when media reports emerged that Mr. Gates had met with Epstein on numerous occasions, the Journal reported. Following the announcement of their divorce, the couple said they would remain co-chairs and trustees of the Gates Foundation and would work jointly to shape and approve its strategies and overall direction. Ms. French Gates is no longer pledging to give the bulk of her wealth to the Gates Foundation, the Journal has reported.

At the CEO Council Summit on Wednesday, Mr. Gates said his work at the foundation isn’t a source of tension in his relationship with Ms. French Gates. “This last year, our marriage ended,” he said. “It never interfered with our working together.”

Write to Khadeeja Safdar at [email protected]

“How does he feel about something that says vaccines kill people or that Bill Gates is tracking people?” Mr. Gates said, adding, “It’s not totally clear what he is going to do.”

In a recent tweet, Mr. Musk confirmed that he confronted Mr. Gates about shorting

Tesla Inc.

In the tweets, Mr. Gates had contacted his fellow billionaire to discuss philanthropy in climate change, but Mr. Musk asked if Mr. Gates still had a $500 million short position in Tesla. Mr. Gates responded that he hadn’t closed it out, to which Mr. Musk said he couldn’t take Mr. Gates’s philanthropy seriously if he was shorting the electric-car maker.

Mr. Gates didn’t directly answer a question about whether he had personally shorted Tesla, saying that climate change was a focus of the Gates Foundation.

“I don’t think whether one’s short or long Tesla is a statement about your seriousness about climate change,” Mr. Gates said. “I applaud Tesla’s role in helping with climate change.”

He added, “I have nothing but positive things to say about Elon. If he makes Twitter worse, fine, I’ll speak out about that, but I wouldn’t assume that’s what’s going to happen.”

Mr. Musk, who has supplanted Mr. Gates as the world’s richest person, has agreed to pay $44 billion to buy Twitter, saying he wants to ensure it protects free speech.

Mr. Gates said he was often the subject of misinformation during the pandemic and that not all misinformation stems from social media, such as the popularity of taking hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19. “The fact that people latched on politically to particular drugs that truly did not work. Who would have expected that?” he said. “It is pretty hard to explain.”

The

Microsoft Corp.

co-founder and global philanthropist said political leaders had a role to play in combating misinformation. “When you do not have the trusted leaders speaking out about vaccines, it’s pretty hard for the platform to work against that,” he said. “We have a leadership problem, and we have a platform problem.”

“The way that you make those platforms spread truth and not crazy stuff, there’s some real invention required there, and it’s partly in the political realm,” Mr. Gates said. “I don’t have the solution to that. I hope lots of brilliant people are thinking about it, but it is a huge problem in terms of legitimacy of the elections or medical innovations.”

In a recent Journal essay, Mr. Gates argued that the world needs a full-time, paid team whose job it is to prevent pandemics, dubbing the proposed effort “GERM.” The Gates Foundation has committed more than $2 billion to pandemic relief.

On Wednesday, Mr. Gates said the effort would include a social-media team that puts out messages with information about issues such as vaccines. But he said that trusted leaders in communities need to be engaged to stop the spread of misinformation. “We went to the religious leaders. They vaccinated their children,” he said, speaking of the foundation’s efforts to eradicate polio in Africa. “We eradicated wild polio from Nigeria, but it took us three years.”

He said that a lack of cooperation among countries during the pandemic hurt global efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus cases and that geopolitical tensions with Russia and China could hurt future efforts. “The United States during a global pandemic literally withdrew from the World Health Organization,” he said. “That left everyone going, ‘What are we supposed to do?’”

Last year, Mr. Gates and

Melinda French Gates

said they were ending their marriage after 27 years. Ms. French Gates was concerned by her then-husband’s meetings with disgraced financier

Jeffrey Epstein,

the Journal previously reported. She and her divorce lawyers held a number of calls in October 2019, when media reports emerged that Mr. Gates had met with Epstein on numerous occasions, the Journal reported. Following the announcement of their divorce, the couple said they would remain co-chairs and trustees of the Gates Foundation and would work jointly to shape and approve its strategies and overall direction. Ms. French Gates is no longer pledging to give the bulk of her wealth to the Gates Foundation, the Journal has reported.

At the CEO Council Summit on Wednesday, Mr. Gates said his work at the foundation isn’t a source of tension in his relationship with Ms. French Gates. “This last year, our marriage ended,” he said. “It never interfered with our working together.”

Write to Khadeeja Safdar at [email protected]