World Economic Forum didn’t call for the elimination of conspiracy theorists, despite online claims

CLAIM: A top World Economic Forum official has said conspiracy theorists should be “eliminated.”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Author and historian Yuval Harari didn’t say he wanted conspiracy theorists to be eliminated in a recent podcast interview, a review of the audio shows. He also doesn’t work for the non-governmental organization in any official capacity.

THE FACTS: Social media users are claiming the WEF is trying to silence those who believe a cabal of global elites is secretly running the world.

Many are sharing a screenshot of a story with the headline “Professor: Conspiracy theorists must be eliminated” above a photo of Harari, who is a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“Yuval Harari, Klaus Schwab’s right-hand man, has called for so-called ‘conspiracy theorists’ to be banned from the Internet because of their ‘dangerous’ belief that a global clique of elites controls the world,” the text above the screenshot reads. “What an odd thing for the elites at the WEF to say.”

Schwab is the founder of the Switzerland-based WEF, which is known for hosting an annual summit of global leaders in the resort town of Davos and is a frequent target of conspiracy theories.

The headline was taken from a post by The People’s Voice, a website previously known as News Punch that regularly publishes false and misleading information. The site even has a disclaimer that its content may not be accurate.

The People’s Voice post refers to Harari as a “World Economic Forum official” and cites his appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast last month as the source of the alleged quote about conspiracy theorists.

But Harari did not say anything of the sort on the show — and he doesn’t work for the WEF.

Spokespersons for Harari and the WEF confirmed Thursday, as they have previously, that the author is among the many prominent thinkers that have spoken at Davos over the years but is neither an advisor nor employee of the organization.

“These false claims are made to discredit the important work the Forum does on serious global challenges,” Trevor Chueu, a WEF spokesperson, wrote in an email.

Harari also didn’t suggest eliminating anyone, or banning them from the internet, during his appearance on the podcast

In fact, Harari argued in his wide-ranging remarks that it’s the purveyors of “global cabal theories” — which frequently inveigh against the WEF and other international NGOs — who are seeking a scapegoat.

“It enables you to shift all the responsibility to all the bad things that are happening in the world to this small cabal,” he said, according to a transcript of the July 17 podcast. “It’s the Jews, it’s the Free Masons. It’s not us.”

“If we only get rid of the small cabal, we’ve solved all the problems of the world,” Harari continues, referring to the conspiracy theorist mindset. “Salvation.”
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.