Fact check: Fake World Economic Forum tweet about meat, property spreads online

The claim: World Economic Forum tweeted about Chairman Klaus Schwab saying eating meat and owning property are unsustainable

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.

Tweet is fake

USA TODAY did not find the purported tweet on the World Economic Forum’s official Twitter page. No archived versions of the tweet exist, either.

Agence France-Presse photographer Ye Aung Thu captured the image of Schwab in the post on Sept. 11, 2018. Schwab spoke on behalf of the World Economic Forum during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

None of the articles about the summit on the World Economic Forum’s website reference Schwab’s purported statement. The statement does not appear in Schwab’s tweets, the organization’s press releases or interviews with the founder, either.

Fact check: False claim that World Economic Forum chairman said internet must be reformed

The World Economic Forum has conveyed the importance of eating less meat to reduce carbon emissions on its Twitter account and on its website. But the organization does not have a “stated goal to remove everyone’s private property by 2030,” according to Reuters.

Numerous false claims about Schwab have surfaced on social media, including baseless allegations of a “triple COVID” diagnosis and an arrest in Switzerland for pandemic-related crimes.

USA TODAY reached out to the World Economic Forum for comment.

Our rating: Altered

Based on our research, we rate ALTERED a screenshot of a tweet that purports to quote Schwab saying eating meat and owning property is unsustainable. There is no evidence the purported tweet in the post exists.

Our fact-check sources:

• World Economic Forum, accessed April 5, Twitter
• Full Fact, April 1, WEF didn’t say that property ownership would become ‘unsustainable’
• Getty Images, Sept. 11, 2018, VIETNAM-DIPLOMACY-SUMMIT-WEF
• World Economic Forum, accessed April 5, About
• World Economic Forum, accessed April 6, World Economic Forum on ASEAN 2018
• World Economic Forum, March 25, Here’s a simple way to convince people to eat less meat
• Reuters, Feb. 25, 2021, Fact check: The World Economic Forum does not have a stated goal to have people own nothing by 2030
• World Economic Forum, accessed April 6, Press releases
• Reuters, March 24, Fact Check-No evidence Klaus Schwab has ‘triple COVID’
• Full Fact, Nov. 24, 2021, WEF founder Klaus Schwab has not been arrested
• Klaus Schwab, accessed March 6, Twitter
• World Economic Forum, Sept. 29, 2017, An interview with Professor Klaus Schwab

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.