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Claim that Klaus Schwab’s daughter warned of climate lockdowns is from misinformation site
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We found no evidence that World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab’s daughter Nicole Schwab warned of imminent "permanent climate lockdowns."
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The viral headline originated on a site known for publishing misinformation, and the article was written by a person known for spreading conspiracy theories and false claims.
A viral headline claims influential people are scheming to strip people of their freedoms in the name of climate change.
"Klaus Schwab’s Daughter: ‘Permanent Climate Lockdowns Coming - Whether You Like It or Not," read a screenshot of a July 30 headline that garnered hundreds of thousands of views on platforms including X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram.
"I will not comply," read a July 31 post sharing the headline. "Whether you like it or not."
These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
(Screenshot from Instagram.)
The original article with that headline was published by The People’s Voice, a site known for publishing misinformation. The article’s author, Sean Adl-Tabatabai, is also known for spreading conspiracy theories and running misinformation sites.
The headline appeared to promise an incendiary quote from Nicole Schwab, daughter of the World Economic Forum’s founder and executive chairman Klaus Scwab. But the article that followed did not deliver such a quote.
It included quotes from a June 2020 panel discussion with Nicole Schwab, a member of the World Economic Forum’s executive committee.
Beyond the headline and a similar subhead, the article did not include the quote attributed to Nicole Schwab.
We did not find any other published articles or information that included this quote by Nicole Schwab.
A July 30 tweet of the headline included a community note that reached the same conclusion: "In the article, there is no mention of Klaus Schwab’s daughter stating anything about permanent climate lockdowns. The word permanent is not even in the article besides the headline."
Since 2020, climate change skeptics have promoted the baseless idea that global elites will impose pandemic-style measures such as stay-at-home orders and lockdowns to restrict people’s freedoms in the name of preventing climate change, according to research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. PolitiFact has previously debunked a claim that leaders in the U.K. planned a "climate lockdown."
The People’s Voice article quoted Nicole Schwab discussing the need for increased sustainability and for creating jobs while also respecting nature.
The article linked to a 50-second Rumble clip of Nicole Schwab speaking that ended before Schwab appeared to finish her remarks. But we located a longer version of the footage in which Schwab does not say the phrase "permanent climate lockdown."
She said, "This (COVID-19) crisis has shown us that, first of all, things can shift very rapidly when we put our minds to it and when we feel the immediate emergency to our livelihoods. And second, that clearly the system — I mean, you mentioned it earlier — that we had before is not sustainable."
She said the pandemic presented an opportunity to "have this great reset" and create significant change that would put "nature at the core of the economy."
Her remarks were a nod to a set of World Economic Forum policy ideas for economic recovery during the pandemic coined "The Great Reset." The initiative sparked a widely debunked conspiracy theory, which holds that elites who intend to establish a totalitarian global regime used the coronavirus to depopulate the earth and reorganize society.
We rate the claim that Nicole Schwab said, "Permanent climate lockdowns coming — whether you like it or not" False.
RELATED: No, a traffic management plan is not a ‘climate lockdown’ to confine people to their neighborhoods
RELATED: World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab didn’t admit to forced lockdown plot
Our Sources
Instagram post, July 31, 2023
Instagram post, July 31, 2023
Facebook post, July 31, 2023
Post on the X platform, July 31, 2023
Post on the X platform, July 30, 2023
The People’s Voice, Klaus Schwab’s Daughter: ‘Permanent Climate Lockdowns Coming – Whether You Like It or Not,’ July 30, 2023
PolitiFact, No, a traffic management plan is not a ‘climate lockdown’ to confine people to their neighborhoods, Dec. 15, 2022
Institute for Strategic Dialogue, ‘Climate Lockdown’ and the Culture Wars: How COVID-19 Sparked a New Narrative Against Climate Action, Oct. 18, 2021
FactCheck.org, Misinformation Directory, Nov. 12, 2018
The Associated Press, German study looked into COVID’s impact on the brain, not vaccine effects, May 16, 2023
The Times, Mother churns out stories for master of fake news, Jan. 29, 2017
Poynter, Want to get away with posting fake news on Facebook? Just change your website domain, Jan. 30, 2019
The Hollywood Reporter, L.A. Alt-Media Agitator (Not Breitbart) Clashes With Google, Snopes, Sept. 21, 2017
World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, accessed Aug. 1, 2023
Rumble, Daughter of Klaus Schwab Admits Covid Tyranny Was a Precursor to Coming Climate Lockdowns, July 27, 2023
InTent, The Urgency of a Global Green Transition - with Nicole Schwab, recorded June 2020
World Economic Forum, The Great Reset, archived April 5, 2023
PolitiFact, 'Died Suddenly' repeats debunked COVID-19 vaccine claims, promotes conspiracy theory, Nov. 29, 2022
Anti-Defamation League, Great Reset, accessed Aug. 1, 2023
PolitiFact, There’s no evidence the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is connected to the monkeypox outbreak, July 29, 2022
PolitiFact, The Great Reset is not a conspiracy to force changes in economic systems, Oct. 11, 2022
NBC News, How 'climate lockdowns' became the new battleground for conspiracy-driven protest movement, July 2, 2023
Snopes, Did Daughter of WEF's Klaus Schwab Say 'Permanent Climate Lockdowns' Are 'Coming'?, July 31, 2023
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