LONDON (AP) — Surveillance camera footage A photo taken from a business park in the Netherlands shows a man in a black hat pouring the contents of a white container at the base of a mobile phone tower. Flames erupted as the man trotted back to his Toyota to escape in the evening.
The scene has been repeated dozens of times in recent weeks in Europe, where conspiracy theories linking new 5G mobile networks to the coronavirus pandemic have fueled arson attacks on cellphone bases.
Popular beliefs and conspiracy theories that wireless communications are a threat have long existed, but the global spread of the virus at the same time countries were rolling out fifth-generation wireless technology , some of those false theories were amplified.
Officials in Europe and the United States are closely monitoring the situation and pushing back, worried that the attack could undermine critical communications links at a time when they need to deal with the pandemic most.
In early April, Stephen Powis, medical director of the UK National Health Service, said: “I am completely outraged that people are taking action against the very infrastructure that we need to respond to this health emergency. I’m absolutely disgusted by it.”
Around 50 fires targeting mobile phone towers and other equipment have been reported in the UK this month, leading to three arrests. According to industry group Mobile UK, telecoms engineers have been abused 80 times on the job, with the UK being the epicenter of the attacks. Photos and videos documenting the attacks are often overlaid with false narratives about the coronavirus. About 16 people were set on fire. Netherlandsattacks have also been reported IrelandCyprus, and Belgium.
On Facebook, a post threatening to attack phone towers was being liked. “No one wants cancer or COVID-19. Stop trying to make it happen, or all the pole stores and mobile kiosks will die,” one anti-vaccine group posted on April 12. But it ends up looking like this store.”
The trend attracted particular attention in the United Kingdom, as targets included towers providing voice and data traffic to a Birmingham field hospital treating coronavirus patients.
Nick Jeffrey, chief executive of wireless carrier Vodafone UK, said on LinkedIn: “It’s heartbreaking that families can’t be at the bedside of a seriously ill loved one.” Told. “It’s even more upsetting that even the small comfort of a phone call or video call can be denied due to the selfish actions of a few deluded conspiracy theorists.”
False narratives about 5G and the coronavirus have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media. These range from claims that the coronavirus was a cover-up for 5G deployment to claims that new 5G equipment created the virus.
“It is simply wrong to worry that 5G is in any way accelerating the spread of coronavirus,” said the chairman of the World Health Organization committee studying mobile phone radiation and cancer. says Dr. Jonathan Samet of the Colorado School of Public Health. “I can’t see any plausible way to tie them together.”
Anti-5G activists are undaunted.
Susan Brinchman, director of the Electrosmog Prevention Center, a nonprofit campaigning against “environmental electromagnetic pollution,” said people have a right to be concerned about the link between 5G and COVID-19. “The entire 5G infrastructure should be dismantled and powered down,” she said in her email.
But Martyr Simko, scientific director of Sweden’s Cypruf International, who has spent decades researching the issue, believes that wireless communication – whether it’s 5G or an earlier version – may have a negative impact on the immune system. He said there was no evidence that it would cause any harm.
The current wave of 5G theories dates back to January, when a Belgian doctor suggested a link to COVID-19. Before that, an older variant was circulating, mainly revolving around cancer-causing cell phone radiation, and was circulating on Reddit forums, Facebook pages, and YouTube channels. Despite the majority of adults using wireless every day, the National Cancer Institute has not seen an increase in brain tumors.
Disinformation experts say the theory gained momentum in 2019 from Russian state media, which helped push it into the conversation in the United States.
Ryan Fox, who tracks disinformation as chief innovation officer at AI company Yonder, said he has seen an unusual spike in mentions of 5G across Russian state media in the last year, mostly due to people’s fears about it. , said he realized it was a play on whether it could cause cancer.
“Were they the loudest voices at the time and did they amplify this conspiracy enough to foster long-term success? Yes,” he said.
This conspiracy theory has also been promoted by celebrities including actor Woody Harrelson, who shared a video claiming that people in China are destroying 5G towers.Actually, it was a “smart street light” in Hong Kong. cut down In August, pro-democracy demonstrators staged protests over concerns about Chinese surveillance. British TV presenter Eamon Holmes demonstrated the credibility of this theory on a talk show and was reprimanded by regulators.
“We want to be clear here,” European Commission spokesperson Johannes Burke said on Friday, as the number of arson attacks increases by the day. “There is no geographic or other correlation between the deployment of 5G and the outbreak of the virus.”
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Dupuis and Leica reported from New York. Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed to this report from Nicosia, Cyprus.
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