After some UK cell towers were set on fire, the government will meet Facebook, YouTube, Twitter to stop the spread of a conspiracy theory linking 5G to COVID-19

The Guardian 2020-04-06 Harriet Sherwood

Context & Ripple Effects

The meeting is the escalation point of a week of tower arsons in the UK tied to the false claim that 5G spreads COVID-19 — a theory that went mainstream in March once influential people and celebrities began amplifying it, as traced in the origin account. The immediate human cost has fallen on telecom engineers, who are classified as essential workers but have faced harassment from conspiracy believers while maintaining networks under lockdown.

What makes this meeting consequential is that the platforms had already begun moving before being summoned: YouTube announced it would remove content linking 5G to coronavirus while leaving merely conspiratorial 5G content up, and Twitter later said it would prioritize removing COVID-19 tweets inciting harmful activity or destruction of 5G infrastructure. The government is now formalizing what was ad hoc platform discretion into coordinated policy.

First-order effects

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter face direct government pressure to tighten removal policies on 5G-COVID content, converting their recent voluntary steps into a negotiated standard with the state.
Telecom operators get relief on the ground: engineers facing harassment and towers hit by arson are the proximate harm the crackdown is meant to stop.

Second-order effects

The platforms must now draw and defend a line between 'conspiratorial about 5G' (allowed, per YouTube's stated position) and 'conspiratorial plus coronavirus harm' (removed) — a distinction that will be stress-tested by every future health misinformation wave.
Rival platforms and smaller networks that did not join the meeting inherit a compliance gap: content pushed off the major services can migrate to them, making moderation posture a competitive differentiator.

Third-order effects

If the pattern holds, infrastructure-related misinformation becomes a standing item in government-platform relations, with states treating physical attacks on critical networks as grounds for direct content-policy negotiation rather than public appeals.
Telecom deployment itself becomes politically entangled: conspiracy-driven resistance adds a social cost to 5G rollouts that operators and regulators must plan around alongside spectrum and equipment questions.

The trend: Governments are shifting from pressuring platforms over speech in the abstract to convening them over specific physical harms to critical infrastructure, with 5G-COVID misinformation as the template case.

Discussion

@dcms @dcms on x
We are aware of inaccurate information being shared online about 5G. There is absolutely no credible evidence of a link between 5G and coronavirus For COVID-19 advice: 👉NHS http://nhs.uk/... 👉GOVUK https://www.gov.uk/... 👉Full Fact research https://fullfact.org/...
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
smh. The government is to hold talks with social media platforms after mobile phone masts in Birmingham, Merseyside and Belfast were set on fire amid a widely shared conspiracy theory linking 5G networks to the coronavirus pandemic. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@ai_jared Jared Beck AI Bot on x
“Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, is to hold talks with platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Twitter ‘to hammer this message home’” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@naomirwolf Dr Naomi Wolf on x
@lovemachine6969 Interesting that this tweet from last year is being recirculated and re-presented with bots and trolls, right when policies are being passed on a federal level in some countries to ban 5G. According to UK telecoms' then-announcement, Belfast had not been in rollo…
@marcallera Marc Allera on x
Phone masts keep us all connected at this extraordinary time. And yet we're seeing reports of masts vandalised because of a conspiracy theory linking 5G tech to the spread of Covid-19. This claim is baseless. We must look after the infrastructure and people keeping us in touch. h…
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
5G towers are being set on fire in the UK due to coronavirus conspiracy theories. EE just confirmed that its tower in Birmingham doesn't even provide 5G connectivity, but morons have been targeting lots of them over the past week. Story updated: https://www.theverge.com/...
@xeno_lith Laura Hollister on x
Education matters everyone. Support public education and teachers. https://twitter.com/...
@pauldjohnston Paul Johnston on x
If they can act on 5G, they can act on: * Anti vaxxers * Climate change denial * Fake news stories (malicious misinformation) * Political lies * All the other dangerous stuff out there Call for social media platforms to act on 5G mast conspiracy theory https://www.theguardian.com…
@dcuthbert Daniel Cuthbert on x
the north of england is a place where it is mostly dark, except for the random burning of critical comms equipment. https://www.bbc.co.uk/...
@dangrabham Dan Grabham on x
Facebook especially has serious questions to answer over how it enables these crackpot theories to proliferate. https://twitter.com/...
@tonypiper @tonypiper on x
@PaulDJohnston I suspect the most pernicious vector for spreading misinformation is WhatsApp - easy way to reach large numbers of people who apparently trust you. Not sure what can be done about that, what with E2E encryption (or so we're told).
@byronkaye Byron Kaye on x
When all this is over, we need to look into flattening the curve of stupidity. #Covid_19australia #COVID2019AU #COVID_19uk https://www.bbc.co.uk/...
@aallan Alasdair Allan on x
What is being made incredibly clear, if the anti-vax movement hadn't already done so, is that there is a portion of our population living with a pre-Renaissance mindset. They haven't joined us in the 20th, let alone 21st, century. https://www.bbc.co.uk/...
@markus_eichhorn Markus Eichhorn on x
Next time you hear someone mock supposedly backwards, superstitious cultures in other countries, remind them of how people in the UK set fire to mobile phone masts https://www.bbc.com/...
@alexia Alexia Bonatsos on x
We've entered the Dark Ages 2 https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@banthebbc @banthebbc on x
Coronavirus claims four more mobile phone mast victims https://twitter.com/...
@hendopolis Neil Henderson on x
Another four incidents of people damaging telecoms masts in the belief they power the Coronavirus pandemic. Head spinning. https://www.bbc.co.uk/...
@threeuk Three UK on x
our networks are relied upon by the NHS, critical services and you. please take the time to read this 👇and help us protect the UK's critical infrastructure alongside @O2 @EE & @VodafoneUK https://twitter.com/...
@matthew_evs Matthew Evans on x
Can't stress enough the amazing job #telecoms workers are doing to support the battle against #COVID19 & keep us all connected. That they are also having to deal with with these damaging conspiracy theories is depressing #NotAllHeroesWearCapes https://twitter.com/...
@welshgasdoc @welshgasdoc on x
When the Government has to issue a statement to say that a virus is not spread by mobile phone signals, you just feel that we're heading further into the Dark Ages. https://twitter.com/...
@lynrobinson Lyn Robinson on x
5G and coronavirus. Another reason we need more, much much more information literacy throughout the world. #CityLIS via @DCMS https://twitter.com/...
@milo1234 @milo1234 on x
*sigh* Amazing really, that a Government dept. has to clarify this. Some people are ridiculously gullible. I mean? There are conspiracy theories worth considering then dismissing, and then there is this shit... https://twitter.com/...
@vodafoneuk Vodafone UK on x
Help us protect the UK's critical infrastructure alongside @EE @O2 and @ThreeUK. Put a stop on misinformation sharing and prevent vandalism to our networks, relied upon by the NHS, critical services, and you. https://twitter.com/...
@glennf Glenn Fleishman on x
@the_pc_doc Read my TidBITS article! https://tidbits.com/... @bengoldacre did a lot of work a few years ago pulling together the data and there's been more since. If you put people in a Faraday Cage and ask them to tell you when they sense EMF or not, it's no better than chance.
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
EE says the fire at one of its cell towers in Birmingham was likely arson, and it wasn't even a 5G tower https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@aina_akin Tade Akin Aina on x
The conspiracy theory is everywhere. The new Luddites are transnational! They are using technology to spread anti tech conspiracy theories. https://twitter.com/...
@zhugeex Daniel Ahmad on x
It's genuinely insane how many people have told me they heard this from parents or family members. https://twitter.com/...
@glennf Glenn Fleishman on x
Should also note: • If 5G networking went live in June 2019, it would have been in active testing for months, if not longer • Dozens of studies have debunked the claim of electrosensitivity by using double-blind testing with controls & people who self-identify as sensitive. https…
@glennf Glenn Fleishman on x
Should also note that there is no credible basis on which to assert 5G (or any wireless networks) cause harm. Ongoing peer-reviewed research shows no effects and there's no biological basis for effects. I wrote about this: https://tidbits.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@caro_milanesi Carolina Milanesi on x
I guess too many people must have watched #Kingsman and think what Richmond Valentine did to solve over population is actually possible but using #5G towers instead of SIM cards 🤦🏻‍♀ ️ maybe @SamuelLJackson can have a “leave 5G the F*** alone” as his next book https://twitter.com…
@martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x
It's hardly original to say these people are idiots, but these people are idiots. https://twitter.com/...
@mrjohnnicolson John Nicolson M.P. on x
Hard to believe this is the 21st Century sometimes....."Mast fire probe amid 5G coronavirus claims." #coronavirus https://www.bbc.co.uk/...
@mrsnickyclark Nicky Clark on x
So government are really busy but now have to make time for this? Seriously celebrities if you're not telling people to stay home and save lives, if you're peddling conspiracy theories, just STFU https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@thenewimpostor Dr Nuke on x
Celebrities, including Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden and singer Anne-Marie, have spread the bizarre conspiracy theory that 5G masts spread coronavirus - leading to masts being set on fire in Merseyside, Birmingham and Belfast https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@rooreynolds Roo Reynolds on x
Culture sec @OliverDowden summoning the tech platforms is akin to attempting to instruct ink and paper. To ‘hammer a message home’, probably better to talk to the minor celebrities who have been (deliberately or unwittingly) acting as bullshit amplifiers. https://www.theguardian.…
@mosecon_yan Yan St-Pierre on x
Not only on 5G theories. All conspiracy theories. Social media platforms must work to minimize impact & reach of these theories, as they act as catalyst for distrust & sometimes as a trigger for violence. Info mgmt is key part of risk mgmt, especially now https://www.theguardian.…
@leokelion Leo Kelion on x
Update: Vodafone says there have been a further four mobile phone mast incidents at its own sites and those shared with O2 over past 24hrs. https://www.bbc.co.uk/...
@carljackmiller Carl Miller on x
The most momentous event of our time is spawning a gargantuan, evolving, uber-comspiracy theory that's beginning to connect together: 5G, bio weapons, QAnon's deep state. Torched 5G masts is just the beginning, I could see this becoming a big problem https://www.bbc.com/...
@pickardje Jim Pickard on x
Stephen Powis, medical director for NHS England, says he's “disgusted” by “dangerous nonsense” online suggesting 5G phone masts are spreading coronavirus, calling it “the worst kind of fake news” (police are investigating recent phone mast fires) https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

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