The WEF has not launched a CBDC microchip that 'will end gun ownership' in the U.S.

Context

Viral posts on social media claim that the World Economic Forum (WEF) has launched Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) chips to be implanted under people’s skin to control their lives, including gun ownership rights of U.S. citizens. The claim arises from an article by The People's Voice published on July 13, 2023. The People’s Voice, formerly known as NewsPunch and YourNewsWire, is a website notorious for spreading misinformation and publishing fabricated stories.

This story has been shared widely across social media, expressing concerns about the implications and relating it to conspiracy theories such as the mark of the beast, a conspiracy theory that arose linking the widespread use of barcodes with satanism. Archived posts can be found here and here.

However, the WEF has not launched a CBDC or made any statements about using them to enforce gun control policies.

In Fact

The People’s Voice article claims that the “globalist elite” plan to use CBDC microchips “to abolish the Second Amendment” of the U.S. Constitution, which asserts the rights of U.S. citizens to bear arms. It also later claims that one of the reasons that WEF wants CBDCs to be rolled out is that it would stop Americans from owning arms. However, the article does not provide any evidence for such statements being made by the WEF.

A screenshot of a tweet attributed to the WEF within the story, which read: “CBDC microchips will end gun ownership in America." However, the WEF has never tweeted any such statement.

The People’s Voice article further claims the WEF “urged world leaders to begin fast-tracking the implementation of CBDC’s during the “Summer Davos” event” this year. The WEF’s 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2023, also known as “Summer Davos”, was held in Tianjin, China, from June 27 to 29. While discussions around CBDCs did take place at this event, the WEF did not issue any statement endorsing or proposing CBDC implants, let alone launch one itself.

Yann Zopf, the media head of the WEF, told Logically Facts, "The World Economic Forum has never called for using (any) microchip to end gun ownership in America. These are false claims to discredit the important work that the World Economic Forum does on serious global challenges."

Logically Facts recently fact-checked the false claim that the WEF said CBDC chips must be implanted under everyone’s skin for societal participation. This claim also originated from The People’s Voice. The WEF, as a non-governmental and lobbying organization, has no authority or power to implement such measures globally.

The Verdict

The World Economic Forum has not launched CBDC chip implants or said anything about controlling or abolishing Americans’ rights to gun ownership using such chips. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.