FALSE: No more property ownership, privacy by 2030 – WEF

At a glance

• Claim: The World Economic Forum (WEF) has declared that there will be no more property ownership and privacy by 2030.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: The statement about everyone owning nothing and having no privacy in 2030, posted on WEF’s official Twitter account, is just the title of an article published in 2016. It is not an official declaration, goal, objective, or aspiration of the WEF.
• Why we fact-checked this: The claim can be found in a video posted on August 17 by Facebook user Lynn Agno. As of writing, it has about 22,000 views, 3,100 reactions, 1,900 comments, and 3,900 shares.

Complete details

A video uploaded by Facebook user “Lynn Agno” on August 17 falsely claims that the World Economic Forum (WEF) has declared that there will be no more property ownership and privacy by the year 2030. 

Agno cites an April 5, 2017 tweet from the official account of the WEF, which reads: “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.” The tweet tags Twitter user @IdaAuken and includes a website link. 

In the video, Agno says “hindi ito opinyon” (this is not an opinion) when describing the tweet by the WEF. She also says that the WEF has planned the end of property ownership and privacy for a long time, and adds that it isn’t a conspiracy theory. Agno also refers several times to an article in Forbes Magazine written in 2016. 

As of writing, Agno’s post has about 22,000 views, 3,100 reactions, 1,900 comments, and 3,900 shares.

The claim is false. 

The tweet is not an official declaration, goal, objective, or aspiration of the WEF.

Instead, the statement “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better” is just the title of an article in Forbes Magazine written by Danish politician Ida Auken. It was published on November 10, 2016.

At the time, Auken was a young global leader and member of the Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization of the WEF. 

Auken’s article is a vision of a city in 2030 where everything regarded now as a product would have turned into a service because of technology. Auken sees herself as owning nothing there and concludes that it would be a “good life,” although she expresses annoyance with the lack of privacy. She also expresses concern about people who would be outside the city.

It is the same article that Agno keeps mentioning in the video. 

The link in WEF’s tweet redirects to a page on WEF’s official website, but is no longer accessible. The URL, however, has the file path “shopping-i-can-t-really-remember-what-that-is.” The passage “Shopping? I can’t really remember what that is” can be found in Auken’s article.

https://twitter.com/wef/status/849459333486317568?lang=en

Reuters published similar fact checks on false claims about WEF’s objectives on February 26, 2021 and on May 5, 2021. 

Both articles pointed out that the WEF, on its official Facebook page, posted a video on November 18, 2016, titled “8 predictions for the world in 2030.” The video shows that the statement “You’ll own nothing. And you’ll be happy” is a prediction of the WEF and not an official declaration.

Rappler has fact-checked Lynn Agno several times before, especially on her claims regarding COVID-19. – Percival Bueser/Rappler.com

Percival Bueser is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program, a five-week exclusive and hands-on training on detecting, investigating, and verifying online misinformation and disinformation.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.