The claim
A TikTok video claims that Bill Gates invented computer viruses and then enriched himself with anti-virus software.
Our conclusion
The first computer virus existed in 1971, long before Microsoft was founded. The company only released its own antivirus software in 1986 as an integral part of MS-DOS.
Some people claim that we only invent fakes so that we can then report on them. It would be nice if they were much more sophisticated *wink*. In the same way, Bill Gates is now said to have invented computer viruses in order to become even richer with anti-virus software, just as he would now become rich with vaccinations because he is said to have sponsored the development of SARS-CoV-2.
The claim
The claim first appeared in a TikTok video by a young woman. The video has now been deleted . The creator of the video describes herself as a “right-wing investigative journalist” and “truther” on her podcast
The video still exists on her Instagram account
In it she says:
“I have evidence that what happened to us in 2020 was planned.
Check out this video from seven years ago... This is the same guy who developed viruses for his own computer company. Then, when everyone had problems with their computers, he developed antivirus software that he sold to all his customers. I can't say much here, but let's just say that this jerk has been in the virus business for a very, very long time. So much so that even certain countries no longer want him there. Well, aside from computers, because this man was involved in the "virus solution" and everyone gets what is their version of a "solution" to this virus, he now predicts - and this was seven years ago - that 10 million people will die .”

The video shows an excerpt from a 2015 TED talk ( HERE on YouTube) with Bill Gates in which he points out that we are not sufficiently prepared for an infectious virus outbreak. By the way, he shows an influenza virus as an example, not a coronavirus. It explained the risk of future highly infectious viruses and a lack of investment in response measures using the example of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Since Gates pointed out the dangers of a virus pandemic in 2015, it is often concluded that Gates himself is responsible for it. Proofs? None. We look at the topic HERE Below we address the claim that Gates also invented computer viruses.
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The basis of the claim: 2 facts become 1 false claim
The claim appeared on Twitter in connection with COVID-19 in 2020 - not from an IT specialist or another expert, but as a joke from a stand-up comedian:
“Bill Gates founded Microsoft and then created computer viruses which he then sold for profit…………….so would he do the same to people? What the hell is going on here, man?”
The gag wasn't necessarily very successful; only a few of his 70,000 followers reacted to it.
The basis of the claim is most likely based on two facts:
- to have manipulated the software of his high school timetable system so that he would be the only boy in a class full of girls.
- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation runs the Institute for Disease Modeling , which studies the dynamics of disease transmission in malaria, measles, polio, tuberculosis, HIV, pneumonia, typhoid fever, COVID-19 and many other diseases.
These two facts have now been expanded upon (“ Anyone who manipulates software can definitely program viruses ” and “ Anyone who studies disease dynamics can also definitely create diseases ”) and merged into one false claim.
The first computer virus
The idea of self-replicating programs emerged as early as 1949, when mathematician John von Neumann introduced specialized computers or “self-replicating automata” that could create copies of themselves and pass on their programming to their descendants.
Thomas Chen, professor of cybersecurity at the City University of London, wrote about this in a 2004 paper called “ The Evolution of Viruses and Worms .” As the title suggests, he also reports on the first computer viruses.
The very first computer virus is considered to be “Creeper,” which by Bob Thomas at BBN in 1971 and moved independently between the nodes of the ARPANET. Originally intended as an experiment to demonstrate a self-replicating program, without any plan, it damaged the Digital Equipment Corporation's DEC PDP-10 mainframe computers and messed up the screens of the connected teleprinters by displaying the message " I'm the creeper, catch me if you can! “ indicated.
In order to eliminate this virus from the systems, the first antivirus program called “Reaper” was created in 1972. Ray Tomlinson, the inventor of email, developed the software to delete “creepers” from systems.
Other notable viruses of the early computer era include the Rabbit virus of 1974 , the first Trojan horse virus known as ANIMAL in 1975, and the floppy disk-infecting Brain virus of 1986.
Brain in particular is worth highlighting here because it was the first computer virus to target Microsoft Disk Operating Systems (MS-DOS) and Windows-based PCs. Incidentally, it was still not programmed by Bill Gates, but by the brothers Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi.
And when it comes to antivirus software: Microsoft didn't care about it for a long time! It wasn't until 1993 that the company released its own antivirus program called Microsoft AntiVirus (MSAV), which became an integral part of MS-DOS. And it wasn't until 2006 that “Windows Defender” became an integral part of Windows 7 and Vista.
Conclusion

If you haven't noticed yet: Microsoft not only entered the antivirus sector very late, but also didn't earn a cent from it: their software was an integral part of the MS-DOS and Windows versions.
The claim that Bill Gates developed computer viruses in order to then make good money with antivirus software is pure nonsense.
Article image: Pixabay
Additional source:
Lead Stories
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