Residents of York City and Hanover Township have wanted broadband expansion in their area, but anti-5G conspiracy theorists have been holding off Wi-Fi expansion for months.
Conspiracy theorists who believe 5G internet access will cause serious health effects have derailed broadband expansion in York City and Hanover Township. According to York News.
The York Dispatch originally reported in December that a group of conspiracy theorists had been granted a 15-minute meeting with York County commissioners and other government and business leaders in the area.
However, the meeting was not properly advertised and may have violated the state’s Sunshine Law.
“The fact that the call took place creates potential Sunshine Act liability, not the fact that the call was not made public,” said Melissa Melewski, media law counselor for the Pennsylvania News Media Association. He told the same media.
“This was clearly a quorum discussion regarding agency business that took place outside of a public meeting. The call is a Sunshine Law issue. Terminating the call at a later date does not resolve the Sunshine Law issue. Sho.”
The meeting included short presentations from anti-Wi-Fi activists, after which York County Commissioner Doug Hawk thanked conspiracy theorists for this new information.
“I appreciate the information,” Hawk said. “As I said before, this is not my area of expertise, but it’s interesting to learn about this.”
At one point, anti-5G presentation Jolie Diane was presented with credible evidence from county expert Silas Chamberlain that York Economic Alliance’s Wi-Fi does not have a negative impact on health. She reacted by questioning the validity of the science, according to the York News Agency.
“We don’t have to tolerate these outdated guidelines. We can put something in place now to protect us,” she said. “Otherwise, we’re going to see more violence and more mental health problems. That’s what the brain has to do with it.”
Anti-Wi-Fi conspiracy theorists have successfully delayed broadband expansion in York City and Hanover for the time being. Mr Chamberlin said the plan was to install Wi-Fi emitters in York and Hanover to reduce barriers.
“The idea of the Wi-Fi network was simply to provide a basic level of service to areas where people face a lot of barriers,” Chamberlain said. “When we approached stakeholders in the cities of York and Hanover and the surrounding areas, they were asking for this. This is not something we came up with out of the blue.”
