The worldwide 5G and microchip conspiracy

Some of the most persistent conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic continue to spread around the world.

We take a look at some of the most widespread false claims and see just how widespread they are.

But that hasn’t stopped rumors from spreading around the world, sparking protests in countries where the technology doesn’t yet exist.

In Bolivia, communications towers in two towns were attacked following the sharing of videos of communication devices and claims that 5G was the cause of coronavirus.

Adriana Olivera, a reporter for Bolivia Verifica, said the country does not have 5G technology, but “seeing these rumors, combined with the fact that everyone is under lockdown, has led people to remove antennas in Caracara and Yapacani.”

Some politicians and religious leaders have also spread false claims linking the technology to the spread of the virus.

In a video shared 25,000 times on Facebook, a former Nigerian senator suggested the pandemic was just an excuse for the introduction of 5G, which he said would bring harm.

“People with underlying health conditions are easily swept up in the reactions of this 5G technology and they are going to die,” he said.

A Tanzanian evangelical pastor took to Instagram and YouTube to blame the push for mobile technology for the spread of coronavirus.

Egypt’s former Grand Mufti has spoken on television about how 5G networks could be causing electromagnetic interference, creating the perfect conditions for the spread of the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, fear-mongering has led to protests and even attacks on masts in Europe.

The BBC has reported dozens of incidents of antenna vandalism in the UK.

Speculation about 5G conspiracies and Bill Gates is also popular on television and in the tabloids in Serbia, with many of the articles citing English- or Russian-language sources.

“So we see the same fake news as in the UK, the US and other countries,” said Lazara Marinkovic, who covers disinformation at BBC News Serbian.

Videos talking about a link between 5G and the virus have been censored on social media but remain accessible online and have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Russian YouTube and Facebook accounts.

One of the most widespread false claims is that the pandemic is the result of a grand scheme by Bill Gates to implant microchips in people along with a coronavirus vaccine.

Although there is no evidence to support this theoryBut its global impact has been considerable: The International Fact-Checking Network, IFCN, has a database of coronavirus fact-checks from its partner networks, and finds that fact-checkers in at least 14 countries, including Greece, Kazakhstan, the Philippines and Mexico, have refuted local versions of the microchip myth.

A YouTube video from Argentina supporting this theory has been viewed 1.3 million times.

The same claims were repeated in another Pakistani Facebook video, which has been viewed almost 650,000 times since it was posted in May.

Other versions of the theory have been given local spin, including a video that has been viewed more than 375,000 times on YouTube and shared multiple times on Facebook, where the fictitious microchip is referred to in Arabic as the “Antichrist chip.”

BBC News Brazil has found a variant of the “microchip” hypothesis circulating in Portuguese on WhatsApp and Facebook, where users have copied and pasted sentences beginning with: “I confess that Bill Gates is a real evil genius! It’s easy to control submissive people.”

The message further claims that Bill Gates is finalizing plans for a “vaccine stamp that would be implanted under the skin” that would be linked to individuals’ social media profiles and controlled via 5G.

The combination of the microchip theory and the 5G conspiracy theory has been given momentum in Brazil by Alan dos Santos, a strong supporter of President Bolsonaro who is currently under investigation for “fake news” by Brazil’s Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In a tweet that has been liked more than 14,000 times, he quoted a Pakistani commentator as saying that Bill Gates wants to implant nanochip vaccines to control the population through 5G. He distanced himself somewhat from the claim, adding: “Is this ridiculous? We need to debate this.”

Facebook outsources content moderation around the world to international fact-checking organisations, and some regions, such as North America and Europe, have stricter systems in place than others, which makes them “fact-checking deserts”, says Rory Smith of First Draft.

“As more people believe these conspiracy theories, they could lead to increased vaccine hesitancy and spark a new global public health crisis,” he warned.

Additional reporting by Zulfiqar Ali, Nader Ibrahim, Lazara Marinkovic, Peter Mwai, Olga Robinson, Shayan Sardarizadeh, and Ricardo Senra.