A video being shared thousands of times on Facebook has been altered to make it look as though Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said “water lockdowns” will cause widespread suffering that can be solved by something called “the United States Water Reserve”.

The video actually uses genuine footage of Mr Gates speaking to the media earlier this year about giving testimony to the US House Oversight Committee about Jeffrey Epstein. (Mr Gates’s appearance at the committee was voluntary and he told it he had never witnessed Epstein engaged in ongoing criminal conduct, or seen any indication of it.)

But an entirely different audio track and screen caption seem to have been added to the CBS News clip. The footage of Mr Gates’s lips may also have been manipulated to make it match the new audio track.

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