In this file photo taken on July 11, 2015 Billionaire Bill Gates, chairman and founder of Microsoft Corp., and his wife Melinda attend the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. - Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder-turned philanthropist, and his wife Melinda are divorcing after a 27-year-marriage (Photo by SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP) (AFP / Scott Olson)

Doctored video of Bill Gates with ‘breasts’ misleads social media users

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 1, 2021 at 10:00
3 min read
By AFP Hong Kong

A video that purports to show Microsoft founder Bill Gates with breast implants has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. The footage circulated after the billionaire announced he and his wife of 27 years would divorce. But the footage has been doctored to expand Gates' chest.

The video was published here on May 25, 2021, where it has been viewed nearly a million times.

The traditional Chinese-language caption translates to English as: “Bill Gates’s Breast”.

A screenshot, taken on June 1, 2021, of the misleading post.

The video shows Bill Gates, with an enlarged chest, crossing a street.

Some social media users appear to have been misled by the clip.

“Isn't s/he getting a divorce to marry someone?” one Twitter user commented.

The video surfaced after Bill and Melinda Gates announced they would divorce after 27 years of marriage.

Another person simply wrote “transgender?”

A screenshot, taken on May 31, 2021, of the comments under the tweet.

The same video was shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here and here; on Instagram here and here; on Reddit here; and on YouTube here.

The footage, however, has been doctored.

A reverse image search on Google found the original video posted here on YouTube by UK-based celebrity news company Gossip Bae, on May 23, 2021.

The video was titled: “Bill Gates spotted after affair and divorce drama”.

The video description reads in part: “Bill Gates is still seen wearing his wedding ring while walking to lunch with friends and bodyguards around Manhattan’s Downtown area.”

Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored video (L) and the original video (R):

A screenshot comparison of the misleading video on Twitter and the YouTube video.

A similar photo of the scene was also published here on News 98 on May 23, 2021.

A frame-by-frame analysis of the video in the misleading post found that the wall behind Bill Gates appeared to be distorted as he crossed the street, demonstrating that the footage has been doctored.

A screenshot, taken on June 1, 2021, of the misleading video with the twisted area circled in red by AFP.

The earliest version of the doctored video AFP found was published here on Twitter on May 25, 2021.

The Twitter user describes themself as a “digital artist” and “video editor” and regularly posts doctored footage.

Bill Gates out walking, trying to flatten those curves. pic.twitter.com/fMBM1eZ3hd
— Maze (@mazemoore) May 24, 2021

The tweet is captioned, “Bill Gates out walking, trying to flatten those curves.”

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail