“This really crosses the spectrum - lots and lots of political leanings and different types of conspiracy theory can find something in the 5G theory,” explains Tom Phillips, the editor of Full Fact, a UK-based fact-checking organization, pointing out that similar fears were expressed during the introduction of 3G and wifi. But ultimately, most of these ideas draw on an established well of confused concern about 5G technology and longstanding fears about new cellular technologies. Others point to suspicious sources like misunderstood legislation as evidence that the government is hiding something in this global crisis. Some seem to think that both 5G and the coronavirus are new, so they must be connected somehow. The loose and incorrect reasons some have connected 5G technology to the coronavirus outbreak are myriad and maddening. 5G conspiracy theories have been around for years In the face of these fears, it remains unclear if the platforms where these ideas are spreading - Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube - can do anything to stop the madness. By early April, conspiracy theorists were setting cell towers on fire in Europe and starting to intersect with other conspiracy-minded communities like anti-vaxxers, raising fears that the towers could pose a threat to public health. As certain people fall for these theories and act out, they stand to harm themselves and others. Some think it might be connected to the American agriculture titan Monsanto.Īs out-there as all this seems, it’s also dangerous. A few accounts push the idea that 5G and Covid-19 are part of a broader effort to “ depopulate” Earth. Others float that reports of the novel coronavirus were actually a cover-up for the installation of 5G towers. Some suggest that 5G networks cause radiation, which, in turn, triggers the virus. Initial theories about the relationship between the coronavirus and 5G have now ballooned into all sorts of wild speculation. “This is just their latest attempt to push those claims, tying them onto this current news story.” “There’s been a crowd that has been saying that 5G is harmful to human health for years, ever since 5G was first being proposed well before any towers or networks were online,” he told Recode. The article was taken down within hours, but the theory had already spread to English-language Facebook pages. Two days after the French blog post, a Belgian newspaper called Het Laatste Nieuws published an interview with a local doctor, who floated the unfounded claim that the coronavirus outbreak could be linked to 5G cellphone towers installed near Wuhan in 2019. Gregory, a senior analyst at the internet trust tool NewsGuard, caught an early glimpse of the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory, but it didn’t take long before the fake news started to spread. Three months later, conspiracy theorists making similar claims were setting cellphone towers on fire in Europe. The first link John Gregory saw pushing a connection between 5G and the coronavirus pandemic was on a French conspiracy website called Les moutons enragés, which loosely translates as “The rabid sheep.” A January 20 post floated that the millimeter wave spectrum used by 5G technology and Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, could be related, pointing to reports about Wuhan installing 5G towers before the outbreak.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |