In February 2009 the world was introduced to an application that would change the world of communication, it was not the first messaging app but it certainly was revolutionary. Whatsapp changed the world in a way that was commendable and at this point, it is hard for most people to imagine their life without something like Whatsapp especially in a country like India. With all its advantages it also brought the biggest disadvantage which was the ease of perpetuation of fake news. However, this is not limited to Whatsapp but it is certainly is the biggest catalyst in creating the ecosystem that can potentially cost someone their life.
One of my professor in college used to say that this is an era of information overload, indeed it is. And messaging apps like Whatsapp make it hard to segregate the fake news out of all the information we get. And that is why they work as great broadcasting channels for conspiracy theories. One such popular conspiracy theory these days is "5G is the cause of corona." and its different versions.
And to get to the bottom of this thing I tried researching about how it came into being and what is the connection between the corona and 5G, what I found is - There is NONE. It all started with anti-5G protests.
Fears around the advent of new wireless technologies are not new, they have been around since the 1990s and there is a long history of protest against such technologies. According to a report published by the Sage Publication "While fears about EMF exposure have flared with the development of 5G, few of these concerns are new. The same fears were expressed in the 1990s and early 2000s, with activists focusing on the dangers of non-ionising radiation. "
These protests in the past have even influenced policies in certain areas of the world, not getting too much into the fear of wireless technology the point to be noted here is that the anti-5G protests were not a new thing or concerns for that matter. In fact, they started way before the first reported case of covid-19.
As far as the theories go, there are various versions floating around. A report published by Abc.net says "One theory claimed 5G's millimetre wave technology was secretly developed by governments as a weapon to threaten and control people. Another conspiracy linked 5G to the emergence of COVID-19, claiming coronavirus was deliberately released so 5G could be rolled out without opposition while communities were in lockdown. The viral claims have driven believers to hold protests during the pandemic and attack 5G mobile phone towers around the world, including in Australia — despite the fact that all of these theories were demonstrably false."
So how did this cross of anti-5G protest and covid happened? Well, that's where the anti-lockdown protests come in. "Another protest occurred in Melbourne, just as Australia was starting to open up again after the first wave of restrictions. Over 100 people stood in front of the Victorian parliament and railed against the lockdown laws. ....there was no real focus on the economic impacts of the shutdown. Instead, the protest was a clearinghouse for conspiracy theorists, featuring a colourful mix of coronavirus deniers, anti-vaxxers, 5G truthers, sovereign citizens" Similar to the posts on Whatsapp these protestors had a mix of issues that made no sense, and as the protests got mixed so did the theories. Now people were talking about Corona, 5G and whatever chips they could think about altogether when in reality it was all in the frustration of the lockdown.
It seems funny but the reality is, that there is no logical way to mix those things and the biggest question of all is how can 5G radiation affect countries where 5G has not even been introduced?
The sad part is these theories keep growing by the day. It becomes our responsibility to not amplify these hoaxes by sharing them on WhatsApp.
Links to some of the sources for you to check out: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7506181/#bibr72-1329878X20952165
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