This image on a Facebook post purportedly of Bill Gates under armed watch by US Federal marshals at Guantanamo Bay is ALTERED.

The billionaire is strapped to a gurney, according to a claim attributed to The Washington Post.

The post reads: “Bill Gates Arrested by US Federal Marshals; Being Held Under Armed Watch at Guantanamo Bay; Charged With War Crimes Against Humanity. Washington Post.”

A keyword search on The Washington Post’s website shows the media house did not publish such an article on Gates. There is also no information on the alleged arrest from a credible source.

A reverse image search on TinEye established that the image is old and is not of Gates as claimed.

The original image is from a YouTube video available on World News Network (WN.com) dated 16 April 2019 with the title, “#DeathPenaltyFail A Lethal Injection”.

The video description reads: “This video contains images that some viewers may find offensive. A painstaking reconstruction of a real-time execution by lethal injection that highlights some of the very specific issues relating to the USA’s preferred execution method. Using CCTV footage, authentic set design and a script based on real life events, the reality of a lethal injection is heightened to uncomfortable levels.*”

The video is part of the #DeathPenaltyFail campaign pushing for the repeal of the death penalty in the US. It appears on the campaign’s website and was first uploaded on 25 August 2016 on their YouTube channel.

A closer look at the image in the claim alongside the original one shows similarities that indicate Gate’s face was photoshopped into the latter, and a blue filter was added to the image in the claim to make it look different from the original.

PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook post with an image purportedly of Bill Gates held under armed watch by US Federal marshals at Guantanamo Bay and finds it to be ALTERED.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Peris Gachahi and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting chief copy editor Francis Mwaniki.

The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.

PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visitpesacheck.org.

PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.