A 5G Hoax Torched Phone Towers in a Pandemic
A false theory linking 5G networks to COVID-19 spread on Facebook and messaging apps in early 2020, then jumped off the screen. By early May, arson and vandalism had damaged about 77 UK phone masts, many of them not even 5G-enabled.
As the coronavirus pandemic closed in on Britain in the spring of 2020, a claim with no basis in science began circulating online: that 5G mobile networks were causing or spreading COVID-19. The theory moved through Facebook pages, groups and private messaging chats, and within weeks it produced fires.
By 6 May 2020, roughly 77 mobile phone masts across the United Kingdom had been damaged in suspected arson and vandalism tied to the theory, RCR Wireless News reported. Many of the masts targeted were not 5G-enabled at all, and some provided coverage to hospitals treating patients during the pandemic. A spokesman for the industry body Mobile UK said daily attacks were “very low now but have not stopped entirely,” according to the same report.
A theory that jumped off the screen
The first widely reported fires came at the start of April 2020, with incidents in Birmingham, Liverpool and Melling in Merseyside. Vodafone UK’s chief executive, Nick Jeffery, said the company was contending with a deliberate campaign. “I’m saddened today to report that vandals have carried out a series of arson attacks on mobile phone masts during this time of national crisis,” he said in a statement reported by DatacenterDynamics. Britain’s major operators — EE, O2, Three and Vodafone — issued a joint appeal, saying, “Sadly, we have experienced cases of vandals setting fire to mobile masts, disrupting critical infrastructure and spreading false information suggesting a connection between 5G and the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The role of the platforms
The theory did not stay confined to fringe corners. Facebook suspended groups such as “Stop 5G Group” and “Destroy 5G Save Our Children” after some members called for attacks on masts and telecoms engineers, Newsweek reported. The company said that “content encouraging attacks on 5G masts and telecom workers clearly violates our policies and we’re proactively taking action on Pages, Groups and posts to remove content that promotes this behavior.” Facebook also removed a group that had encouraged users to share footage of equipment being destroyed, Fortune reported.
Officials and experts push back
At the government’s daily coronavirus briefing on 5 April 2020, the national medical director of NHS England, Professor Stephen Powis, addressed the claim directly. “The 5G story is complete and utter rubbish, it’s nonsense, it’s the worst kind of fake news,” he said, according to Telecoms Tech News. At the same briefing, cabinet minister Michael Gove described the theory as “dangerous nonsense.”
The United Nations’ telecommunications agency, the International Telecommunication Union, was equally blunt. Its spokeswoman, Monika Gehner, called the 5G-COVID theory “a hoax that has no technical basis,” adding that “the coronavirus is not being spread by radio waves,” UN News reported. The episode became an early, physical illustration of how a false claim, amplified by platform design and private messaging, could translate into real damage to the infrastructure a country depended on during a crisis.