No proof the World Economic Forum called for ‘COVID-19 concentration camps’

A viral social media post made the far-fetched claim that the World Economic Forum, an international nonprofit, is pushing to establish COVID-19 "concentration camps."

"WEF Calls for ‘COVID Concentration Camps’ to Jail Refuseniks Who Question Official Narrative. There are still people who don’t know what the #WEF2030Agenda is. Like rabbits caught in the headlights of a car they will see it too late. #GlobalistParasites," read the text in a Sept. 18 Instagram post.

This post was 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.)

The photo is a screenshot of a Sept. 18 X post from former Brexit Party parliamentary candidate Jim Ferguson. The X post linked to a Sept. 17 article from The People’s Voice, a site that frequently publishes articles with false and misleading claims. The article was authored by Sean Adl-Tabatabai, who has been linked to misinformation websites.

The article began, "The World Economic Forum (WEF) has urged governments to build COVID concentration camps worldwide to jail citizens who refuse to go along with the official narrative." But it made no further mention of the World Economic Forum and did not provide any evidence to support this claim. 

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Instead, it cited reports about Sept. 13 oral arguments in an appeal over COVID-19 quarantine regulations by the New York Department of Health. The People’s Voice article said New York state was seeking to "force New York residents to be quarantined or thrown into ‘quarantine camps.’"

But we’ve debunked a similar claim before; the contested regulation is not equivalent to throwing people into concentration camps, where political prisoners and members of national or minority groups are confined without trial. 

The disputed rule would allow a public health authority to choose a temporary housing location as the setting for quarantine and isolation. In most cases, people would voluntarily isolate in their homes.

A five-judge panel is expected to decide on the New York case in a few months.

We searched Nexis news archives and Google and did not find any press releases or legitimate news reports that support the claim. 

We rate the claim that the World Economic Forum is calling "for COVID concentration camps" False.