The City of Toronto partners with tech giants to provide free temporary internet access for vulnerable Torontonians, Elon Musk is under fire for recent Tweets, and a bizarre conspiracy involving Bill Gates is circulating online.
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The City of Toronto is partnering with technology and telco companies to provide free temporary internet access for residents in lower-income neighbourhoods, seniors in long-term care homes and clients in many city-operated shelters. More specifically, the partnership will help connect 25 large residential apartment buildings in low-income neighbourhoods with temporary free internet access for one year, with the first buildings deployed starting in early May. Organizations involved in this project include Rogers, Cisco Canada, Bai Canada, Onx Canada, Beanfield Metroconnect, Bell, and others. A big thumbs up to the city and its partners for this project.
Elon Musk’s recent Tweets demanding states open up the economy and lift quarantine sanctions left a sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths. In a series of tweets early Wednesday, Musk posted phrases like “FREE AMERICA NOW” and “Give people their freedom back” in response to the lockdowns, which have been in place throughout much of the country amid the pandemic. While the Tesla CEO followed up with a Tweet that said states should “reopen with care and appropriate protection” the damage was already done. In fact, the damage was done last month when he Tweeted “The coronavirus panic is dumb.”
And lastly, a story from Business Insider breaking down a bizarre conspiracy theory about Bill Gates is catching fire on Reddit. The story goes on to say that a number of right-wing conspiracy theorists are claiming that Gates is the mastermind behind the novel coronavirus. The rabbit hole is deep, but the theory leans on a Ted Talk Gates gave in 2015, where he talked about containing the spread of the Ebola outbreak and warned a more contagious, worldwide pandemic is imminent. The theory also points to the Gates Foundation, which has contributed $250 million to fight the disease.
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