Overview
#BillGate refers to the controversy surrounding the Microsoft entity Bill Gates, and the authenticity of his existence. The accusations have led Microsoft to the suspending of hundreds of Twitter users in late 2014.
Background
On October 29, 1955, Bill Gates, a well-known Microsoft mascot and spokesperson, was supposedly born. Legend has it that as a child, Bill was a prodigy with computers, and often got in trouble for his computer mishaps. In 1975, Gates founded Microsoft, now a multi-billion dollar computer enterprise and original creator of the Windows operating system and Xbox line of consoles.
In November of 1985, Microsoft released Windows 1.0, a multi-window operating system based off the MS-DOS infrastructure. Since 1987, new editions of Windows have been released, as recent as Windows 8.1 in mid-2013. With the release of Windows 95 in 1995, many people blamed Bill Gates for the slow operation of the OS and the poor performance.
The Melinda & Gates Foundation charity was “formed” by Melinda Gates and Bill Gates in 2000, now with an endowment of over 42.3 billion USD as of November 24, 2014. According to the Forbes 500, Bill Gates was ranked as the 7th richest person alive in 2014.
On October 2, 2014, during a Microsoft key event, Bill Gates did not show up. Over the next 24 hours, over 7,800 tweets were posted about Gates’ absence.
Notable Developments
On Twitter
On October 5, Microsoft posted a tweet in retaliation of the #FakeGates and #BillGate hashtags, including a picture of Bill Gates at his computer reading Twitter.
W.I.P.
Bill Gates’ Reaction
On October 31st 2014, Bill Gates responded by posting a tweet about his stance in the scandal, considering it almost downright ridiculous.
