COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Leads to Arson Attacks in UK
In perhaps what is a very bizarre turn of events, 5G cell towers are being attacked with fire due to a misleading conspiracy theory about the ongoing viral outbreak.
Logicbase Interactive looks into the situation in today’s article.
5G phone masts, which have been set up in many urban places in the UK, are coming under literal fire as conspiracy theorists mislead people into believing false information regarding the supposed link between 5G connectivity and the ongoing COVID-19 viral outbreak. As of the past week, at least three 5G towers have been set on fire due to the conspiracy.
It’s not just the 5G phone masts being attacked, either. As per the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), public workers who are continuing their jobs with installing 5G infrastructure are being harassed, with people yelling that 5G “will kill you” at the workers.
Phone and internet service providers in the UK, like Vodafone and EE, have made statements publicly condemning the arson attacks.
“I’m saddened today to report that vandals have carried out a series of arson attacks on mobile phone masts during this time of national crisis,” Vodafone UK CEO Nick Jeffery laments in a status update posted on LinkedIn. “It beggars belief that some people should want to harm the very networks that are providing essential connectivity to the emergency services, the NHS, and rest of the country during this difficult lockdown period.”
According to Jeffery, the “[…]Police and counter terrorism authorities are investigating” the arson cases, and are looking into the matter as critical to national security.
The conspiracy theory first came to global notice through Russian government-funded TV network RT America, when the station reported that 5G networks may cause harm leading to death. American news publisher The New York Times picked up on the story and wrote an interrogatory article about it in 2019, claiming that the conspiracy was intended to derail economic progress in the West, particularly in the United States.
The popular version of the conspiracy theory claims that the virus, which was first reported in Wuhan, China, had spread in direct correlation with the rollout of 5G network infrastucture. The conspiracy theory doesn’t account, however, for countries like Japan and Iran, where COVID-19 cases have been recorded. The aforementioned countries do not have 5G infrastructure as of this writing.
In the meanwhile, the UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has branded the conspiracy theory as baseless and “crackpot”, and urges the public to report any attacks on phone masts and other public infrastructure.
