Will the World Economic Forum (WEF) soon force people to wear "brain implants" so that the global elite can read their minds? No, that's not true: This claim turns a speculative conversation about possible future technologies into a plot for global dominion. Despite public availability of the video, NewsPunch did not provide any other publicly available evidence of a WEF initiative to install brain monitors in the populace. The claim is made by NewsPunch, a website known for misinformation and conspiracy theories and that declines to vouch for the accuracy of its content. Despite public availability of the video, which it mischaracterized, NewsPunch did not provide any other evidence of a WEF initiative to install brain monitors in the populace.
The claim appeared in an online article (archived here) published by NewsPunch on September 21, 2022. The article, entitled "WEF To Force Public To Wear 'Brain Implants' So the Elite Can Read Their Minds," opens:
A video taken at the World Economic Forum shows director Klaus Schwab plotting with Google co-founder Sergey Brin to install "brain implants" in our heads so that the globalist World Economic Forum can "measure your brain waves" and read your thoughts.
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WEF To Force Public To Wear 'Brain Implants' So the Elite Can Read Their Minds - News Punch
A video taken at the World Economic Forum shows director Klaus Schwab plotting with Google co-founder Sergey Brin to install "brain implants" in our heads so that the globalist World Economic Forum can "measure your brain waves" and read your thoughts.
The article features a YouTube video with a narrator restating the above claims. It includes a short clip of a 2017 conversation between WEF Director Klaus Schwab and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
At 03:17 in the video, Schwab asks Brin:
Can you imagine that, in 10 years, when we are sitting here, we have an implant in our brains and, um, I can immediately feel because you all will have implants ... I can ... and we measure your brain waves and I can immediately tell you how the people react or I can feel how the people react to you (sic) answers. Is it imaginable?
Brin responds that he thinks it is imaginable, but that it is hard to predict what future technologies will be. At no point is the pair seen talking about such implants actually being possible or plotting how to force the public to wear brain implants.
The clip originates from a 2017 discussion between Schwab and Brin in which the two men discussed Schwab's belief in a "Fourth Industrial Revolution" -- the trend of new technologies "fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds" and "even challenging ideas about what it means to be human."
The WEF's public affairs office did not respond to Lead Stories' request for comment in time for this fact check's publication. If Lead Stories receives a response, the fact check will be updated accordingly. The WEF is a private non-profit organization founded by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab to lobby for policies and programs that emphasize private industry partnerships with government that put entrepreneurial thinking in service to the public interest.
NewsPunch (formerly YourNewsWire) has published several hoaxes and fake news articles in the past. Their Facebook page "The People's Voice" even lost its verification checkmark, according to a 2018 report from Media Matters For America. That year, Lead Stories reported that YourNewsWire apparently had rebranded itself as NewsPunch in a possible effort to evade filtering or blocking.
The NewsPunch site's terms of use (archived here) also make it clear that the organization does not stand behind the accuracy of its reporting:
NEWSPUNCH, LLC AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE.
Lead Stories' other debunks of claims made by NewsPunch can be found here.
