The World Economic Forum, an international nonprofit and lobbying organization, introduced an initiative called the "Great Reset" in June 2020 to help combat societal changes due to COVID-19. Since then, it has become a target for conspiracy theories online.
An April 1 Instagram post claims to show a screenshot of a tweet from the World Economic Forum that purportedly quotes the organization's founder.
"As humanity moves further toward a post-carbon future, people must accept that things like eating meat and property ownership is (sic) simply unsustainable, says Klaus Schwab," reads the purported March 24 tweet.
The Instagram post generated over 7,000 likes in less than a week. Similar posts have amassed hundreds of interactions on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks
But the image of the purported tweet is altered – USA TODAY found no evidence the tweet in the post exists. As independent fact-checking organizations have reported, the claim is tied to the "Great Reset" conspiracy theory, which baselessly alleges elites are using the COVID-19 pandemic to create a tyrannical world government.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment.
USA TODAY did not find the purported tweet on the World Economic Forum's ...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...